100 Heroes: André Baudry
The gay man who was one of the key founders of the homophile movement.
André Baudry was a French writer who was the founder of the homophile review, Arcadie.
Born in 1922, Baudry was a former seminarian and philosophy professor.
Baudry became interested in the debate about sexuality following the publication of the Kinsey report in 1948, the Deuxième Sexe by Simone de Beauvoir in 1952, and the theology thesis of the same year entitled Vie Chrétienne et problèmes de la sexualité by Marc Oraison.
The Arcadie review was created by André Baudry with the support of Roger Peyrefitte and Jean Cocteau. It was classified by the French authorities as being unsuitable for anyone under the age of 18.
André Baudry was prosecuted in 1955 for “outrage aux bonnes mœurs” – outrage against good morals. He was convicted, and fined 400,000 francs.
The Arcadie review emphasised homosexuality as a form of consciousness and self-identity as opposed to a sexuality per se. Baudry sought to shape the popular image of homosexuals as conventional members of society with conventional desires. His thinking on this can be seen as being in line with the Mattachine Society in the US, which was active at this time.
In 1960, Baudry reshaped the Arcadie review to eliminate the classified ads and photographs. He did this to try and protect the review from being prohibited by the French authorities - at this time, there was increasing homophobia from politicians in France.
During its years of publication, Arcadie was the most influential homophile publication in francophone Europe.
The number of subscribers fluctuated between 1300 and 10,000.
In 1975, André Baudry was invited to testify on the television on les Dossiers de l’écran. He renamed the Arcadie association the Mouvement homophile de France.
