Judging Homosexuals: A History of Gay Persecution in Quebec and France

In 2004, the first same-sex couple married in Quebec. How did homosexuality – an act that had for centuries been defined as criminal and abominable – come to be sanctioned by law? In Judging Homosexuals, Patrice Corriveau finds answers in a comparative analysis of gay persecution in France and Quebec. By tracing over time how various groups – family and clergy, doctors and jurists – tried to manage people who were defined in turn as sinners, as criminals, as inverts, and as citizens deserving of protection, this book shows how the law helped construct the crime.