Soon the epilogue of 20 years of discussions? A place for the future center for LGBTQI+ archives in the capital has been found and a provision of 300,000 euros for works has been voted. But this promised opening is taking place against a backdrop of tensions between, on the one hand, the Paris City Hall and the group of associations carrying out the project, and on the other hand, the associations – two of them, which carry the major part archives, having withdrawn from the collective.
The LGBTQI+ archives center is a veritable sea serpent that has been stirring up the community for more than twenty years. Already promised by Bertrand Delanoë in 2001, labeled “greatest Arlesian of LGBT culture” by Didier Lestrade, the co-founder of Act Up, the project that was skating has just experienced a boost. The town hall offered a place to the LGBTQI+ Archives collective, which accepted it, but is waiting to know if we will help pay the rent. This place is located at 147-149, rue de l’Ourcq, in a former training center, and covers 642 m2.
Tango and Gay Frequencies archives
“Today there are not many AIDS survivors left, the words of these people must be preserved. We have a real responsibility, ”said Jean-Luc Romero, the deputy mayor of Paris in charge of the fight against discrimination in particular, during a press briefing at the end of January. The objective of the center is both to collect and preserve the archives of the LGBTQI+ community and movement, but also to be a place of education and reception of the public.
The LGBTQI+ Archives collective is currently housed in premises in the Urban Plateau, the third place nestled in the premises of the former Censier campus. Among the donations already listed, archives of the radiofrequency Gaie, created in 1981, the first radio to tell the daily life of homosexual people. Were also given documents concerning the Tango, a nightclub in the marshes in Paris, directed from 1997 by Hervé Latapie, professor and gay activist. The director Sébastien Lifshit, author in particular remarkable documentary Little Girl on a transgender child, donated her side of the correspondence of a French-American gay couple from the 1950s to 1990s. Among others.
The largest archival fund has deserted the project
But two very important collections will be missing at the opening, that of the Archives Recherches Cultures Lesbiennes (ARCL) and of the Gay and Lesbian Academy, the latter being, according to those concerned, “considered as the largest collection in France of documents on LGBTQI+ by its volume and diversity”. The reason ? A conflict opposes the latter and the collective carrying out the project. According to Sam Bourcier, unofficial spokesperson for the Archives LGBTQI + collective, but who in fact responds to the interviews, this “split” is explained because the associations in question “wanted to divide the place into three”. On the Gay and Lesbian Academy side, we confirm: “We offered an independent room with shared spaces, but we wanted our room inside,” explains Thomas Leduc, treasurer of the association.
Why did you want a “separate” space? Because on the one hand, with regard to the Lesbian Culture Research Archives (ARCL), there was the desire to leave these archives, currently housed at the Maison des femmes de Paris, in a non-mixed place. And on the other hand, because between the collective and the two associations, and particularly the Gay and Lesbian Academy, trust is broken. “They used our archives to get public grants. They want to monopolize our archives to monetize subsidies and throw us out and they treat us with condescension”, attacks Hoàng Phan Bigotte, the president of the Gay and Lesbian Academy.
The man, a political refugee, says he is very upset with the methods of the collective, which he considers to be asking for too much money: “I am an AIDS survivor, I kept the business, I did it voluntarily, I didn’t do this to monetize them, it was also to thank France for welcoming me. And now that there is public money it attracts a lot of scoundrels. We are not a commercial company, ”he plagues. The association withdrew from the project in December 2020, and claims to have had to relaunch the LGBTQI+ Archives collective by registered mail with a bailiff’s report to obtain removal from communication media and requests for funding and premises. “They only work with the balance of power. The slightest relationship with them turns into a trap ”, still mocks Hoàng Phan Bigotte.
Trust is broken between the town hall and the collective
On the side of the Town Hall, confidence is not in good shape either towards the collective, accused of disinformation: “They hold meetings to which we are not invited and then they say that we did not come. And they do not announce the 300,000 euros voted, ”reproaches Jean-Luc Romero. “We learned from the press in an article by Têtu that the place rue de l’Ourcq was assigned to us”, retorts for his part Sam Boursier.
The collective, which has already received 65,000 euros, is also accused of hoarding part of the money received, of not having presented a complete budget to the town hall (even if 20 minutes was able to verify that a presentation had indeed been made in July) and to always ask for more money. In a general meeting held on January 21, members voted for a budget of one million euros, after initially asking for 800,000 euros. “It’s a budget similar to that of the centers in Berlin and San Francisco. And that’s counting with the works, later with the services, in particular IT, which will be that of a center at cruising speed, ”defends Sam Bourcier.
One million Euros ?
Joined by 20 minutes, the Schwules Museum Berlin confirms that its budget is supplemented for 2023 with more than 835,000 euros from the State of Berlin, 565,000 from regular money (the rest being an extraordinary subsidy). But its area is 1,600 square meters, almost three times larger than the selected location in Paris. And Jean-Luc Romero argues that all LGBT associations received in 2022 from the city around 350,000 euros in operation. So a subsidy of one million euros, even counting 300,000 euros of work, would have the effect that the archive center would absorb twice as much as the total sum allocated to all the associations acting in Paris. Which makes Hoàng Phan Bigotte say: “They have big heads. It’s the Olympics, it’s not the time to finance a million. And Thomas Leduc added: “The centers of Berlin and San Francisco were not built with 1 million right away. »
“We will participate in the operation of the archive center”, explains to 20 minutes Eugénie Gangnet, Jean-Luc Romero’s chief of staff, to the attention of the collective behind the project, which fears not being able to pay the rent for the center – which is 110,000 euros a year – and the salaries and all that necessary for a cultural center to live. A round table of funders is to take place in March, to get everyone to agree, and obtain funds from the state and the region. And perhaps, manage to put an end to the dissensions.