Lola: From early childhood, homosexuals have been part of my family and social environment. Near Marseilles, my parents had a naturist camp, which one could describe as libertarian, and there were always quite a few male and female homosexuals in that environment, and girl couples and boy couples.
Two Lesbian friends were very close to us: one had woman lovers but also a long relationship with a married man, until she finally lived with a woman at the end of her life. It was fairly obvious to me that sexual orientation required no classification. It seemed quite normal that somebody could go with a girl or a man at different periods of their life, or possibly at the same time.
I was very young when I had friends who — often later — turned out to be homosexuals. Just as I have always disliked over-feminine girls — in the traditional stereotyped meaning of the word of course. So I was quite young when I knew about abortion. My parents could not stop laughing when they were told that I was delivering scholarly speeches on sex for the benefit of my pals at the naturist camp at the age of 12 or 13… despite my complete lack of experience on the subject.
Then I was no longer a schoolgirl. I became a student in Aix-en-Provence, and I associated myself closely with a milieu where homos mixed with heteros. I was very fond of Mireille, we came from the same town. Lola: We were students. Not that we studied much. Already we lived in this milieu of homosexual men and women. Around me there was this mixed tribe, boys and girls of any gender, of any sex, as the French singer Charles Aznavour used to say.
We were conscious of what was not yet called homophobia. We were professional provocateurs, sex-wise particularly but not only. We raised hell, we were subversive, yet without any grand political discourse. Some of us later became Maoists of the most dogmatic type, one of us even found himself a great fan of Althusser.
