A queer uprising 60 years before Stonewall: the 1905 Les Douaires riot
In the early 1900s, many boys over 16 were sent to Les Douaires, a youth detention colony in Normandy, France. Rumors spread about frequent sexual encounters among the detained boys. This event, lesser known but significant, predated the famous 1969 Stonewall riot — a key moment in LGBTQ+ resistance against police raids and a turning point in the western gay rights movement.
While Stonewall is commemorated annually during Pride events every June, it was not the first queer rebellion. Recent research published in the Journal of Homosexuality reveals that a queer uprising occurred in 1905 at this French youth detention site, over 60 years before Stonewall.
Queer life and repression in 19th-century France
During the 19th century, an underground queer community emerged in Paris, centered around bars and brothels. Same-sex relationships were common in single-gender institutions such as the military and prisons, despite social disapproval.
At the time, queer sexualities faced growing anxieties and were increasingly pathologized as medical disorders. Same-sex relations had become widespread in French youth penal colonies, where working-class youths aged 8 to 21 were incarcerated for months or years, often due to charges like vagrancy or theft.
Conditions at the youth penal colonies
These youth colonies subjected detainees to harsh agricultural and industrial labor under severe conditions. Les Douaires specifically functioned as a youth penal colony holding boys under these circumstances in northern France.
"The 1969 Stonewall riot, a pivotal episode of LGBTQ+ resistance to a police raid, was a turning point in the western gay rights movement."
"My recent research, published in the Journal of Homosexuality, uncovered a queer uprising which took place in 1905, more than 60 years before Stonewall, at a youth detention site in France."
The 1905 Les Douaires riot highlights a previously overlooked chapter in queer history, showing that resistance and community existed well before the better-known Stonewall uprising.
Author's summary: The 1905 Les Douaires riot in France reveals early queer resistance long before Stonewall, showing history’s deep roots of LGBTQ+ struggle under harsh institutional conditions.