When the revolutionary rhetoric meets sexual minorities An analysis of four pamphlets of the French Revolution

The paper discusses the way the rhetoric of liberation and human rights, characteristic
of the French Revolution, deals with the subject of sexual minorities. The Revolution can
be seen as a transition period in which the revolutionary rhetoric collides some ancient
images of sexual minorities. The limits of this new rhetoric are tested in pamphlets where
these minorities appear and that are also full of ancient images: Les Enfans de Sodome
à l’Assemblée Nationale, Requête et décret en faveur des putains, des fouteuses, des macquerelles
et des branleuses contre les bougres, les bardaches et les brûleurs de paillasses, Les Petits
Bougres au Manège and La Liberté ou Mlle Raucourt.