This collection documents the activities of Jacques Girard, who was an activist, organizer, and researcher of LGTBQ issues in France from the 1970s to the late 1990s. The collection consists of three manuscript boxes of records relating to organizations that Girard was a part of, personal research papers. These documents include correspondence, meeting minutes and articles of incorporation, press releases, flyers, manuscripts, financial statements, and newspaper clippings from 1975 to 1999. Many of the materials are in original folders labeled by Girard. The collection contains three series: General Records, CUARH Records, and Research Records.
Born on December 10, 1950 in Aubagne, Bouches du Rhone, France, Jacques Girard is an LGBTQ activist, writer, and researcher. Girard attended Catholic schools until the age of 16, after which he studied at the Lyceé Thiers in Marseille where he received his baccalauréat in 1968. Girard attended the Ecole Supérieure d'Elécricité (Supelec) until leaving the school after experiencing homophobia after coming out as gay in 1971. He joined the the first French gay liberation group, Front Homosexuel d'Action Revolutionnaire (FHAR). Girard then began studying for a certificate in aptitude for secondary school teachers (CAPES) and began a career as a high school math teacher.
In the late-1970s, Girard became active in the Comité d'Urgence Anti-Répression Homosexuelle (CUARH), the Paris-based national gay and lesbian organization. CUARH focused on working to reform and improve the treatment of LGBTQ individuals in their daily lives rather than theory and ideology. The bulk of Girard's work with CUARH consisted of being part of the committee overseeing publication of the organization's monthly periodical, Homophonies, and serving on a committee that organized against bans on LGBTQ people receiving professional licenses based on laws and regulations that questioned the morality of homosexuals.
Girard began to focus less on the public LGBTQ movement after his involvement with CUARH, instead researching personal queer history and collecting projects. Notable topics from this period are his research on the Recontre Homosexual en Ile-de-France (RHIF) and Fréquence Gaie, as well as a second edition of his 1981 book, Le Mouvement Homosexuel en France, 1945-1980.
Jacques Girard continued his personal research by taking advantage of the internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s to create a queer history listserv and website named Kadémos. By this time he had retired from teaching.
