The Law.
The differences in law for homosexuality has been totaly removed of the Penal Code in 1982 and sexual majority is now 15 years old for everybody.
Open air acts.
France is a country of great sexual tolerance. However, some caution is usefull in open air cruising. Boys you can meet would like to bring you home or to stay there. Of course the second choice is a little bit more dangerous. It's forbidden to be naked in public places (even in a wood at three in the morning). Every nudity in a public accessible place is punished with a year in jail and a 15 000 € fine. Some police officers are over-zealous in that job. For example, in Bois de Boulogne, some police officers try to surprise you with silent bikes. There is the homophobic bands risk too, but it has become rare nowadays.
Backrooms and saunas.
A great tolerance reigns in France for sexual acts between consenting adults. So in places where admission is "filtred", you can do whatever you want. Entering sauna or sex clubs, you are supposed to know where you are going, so nobody is chocked to see explicit things happen. If some clubs have black and discret backrooms, some others can allow sex in plain light ! There is no, as north america for example, obligation to be in a closed cubicle.
PaCS.
PaCS (for Pacte Civil de Solidarité) has been voted in 1999 after an
incredible debate in House of Commons. The homophobic insults came from the
right wing and some deputies became completly crazy. Some of them organised
a public demonstration where slogans like "burn the fags" have been
eared. The effect of this insanity was the openning of a real debate about the
place of homosexuals in the french society and the discovering, for a lot of
people, of the discriminations they were under. So the PaCS was finnaly adopted.
And even if it is not perfect at all, it was a great progress.
Since then not much have been done. The right wing politicians don't hide their
homophobic feelings too much and the left wing politicians are not that brave
either. So nothing moves as the France neihbourgs do big steps in egality.
Nevertheless, french people are mostly tolerant for gays.
