Montpellier, rainbow city

Feb. 06 2014

by Frédéric Maurice / TÊTU

To brighten up their cold winter weekends, gays have little choice. A few ski resorts that are looking at their legendary purchasing power. Or friendly cities that, for the most part, are hibernating. In this frozen France, one exception: Montpellier. Not just because it's a mild and sunny winter. The second most friendly city in France (see Têtu, March 2009) does not have an off-season. Its gay community has even just held a house-warming ceremony for its new Maison des LGBT.

The Lesbian and Gay Pride Montpellier-Languedoc-Roussillon is indeed one of the first associations to become the owner of its HQ, tripling its surface. Montpellier does not stop surpassing itself. With eighteen thousand people counted by the police, the March of Pride, the second largest in the country, has again exploded its record in juindernier. "It is because we have regionalized the association," says Vincent Autin. The president of the organizing association wants to go further by providing each of the working-class districts of the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon region with a float to parade.

As for the mayor, she is not to be outdone. Author of the famous "Appel de Montpellier" in favor of the introduction of same-sex marriage in France, Hélène Mandroux had it included in the socialist program for the next presidential election. At the same time, she said she was "ready to campaign for the right to adoption" for gays and lesbians.

With a small Marais that gravitates around its flower market square, the Hérault prefecture is also full of friendly addresses. There is even an optician and a pharmacist who display the rainbow flag! The city also has its headliners. Openly gay personalities such as Jean-Paul Montanari, director of the Montpellier Danse festival, and Jean-Marie Besset, owner of the Théâtre des 13 Vents, as well as very friendly high-level sportsmen and women: the handball player Nikola Karabatic or the very sexy European decathlon champion Romain Barras. The city is also home to some 20 LGBT associations, including the only French shelter for young victims of homophobia (Le Refuge), a rugby club (Los Valents) and a deaf group (Ghandis). Montpellier can also boast two "national monuments" of the gay community: the club La Villa Rouge and the Espiguette beach!

The Montpellier tourist office has a gay section on its website

"Montpellier is full of gays", claims Hussein Bourgi, president of the Committee against homophobia. This is confirmed in the bars and saunas: there are people every night. And in the streets, the gaydar is going crazy. Impossible not to feel immediately at ease. "It's a very attractive city for gays," says Olivier Richaud, 41. Like many, the author of the blog Jeff and Olivier is "an adopted Montpellieran". "The same goes for Ludovic Pelletier, the producer of Menoboy, one of the three biggest X-rated studios in France, who moved to the city three years ago. "I will never move from here! With my boyfriend, we live in a beautiful house, all our neighbors know us and are aware of my professional activity. it's not a problem, there's a great openness."

Before his death in 2010, Georges Frêche, the region's political godfather, had tainted Montpellier's idyllic image with his repeated reactionary statements, but the majority of gays nonetheless praised "a mayor who was a great friend to us".however, the majority of gays praised him as a "visionary mayor" and an "unwavering friend of gays, who had given a room to the Gay Liberation Group in 1979, three years before decriminalization.

Find all the gay and gay-friendly addresses in Montpellier in the Montpellier gay guide

(Main photo © Françoise Dorelli / Têtu)