An Early Queer Riot? The 1905 Les Douaires Mutiny and Abolitionist Genealogies of Queer Politics

In July 1905, the incarcerated youths detained at Les Douaires, France, rebelled following a crackdown of the penal administration on homosexual relationships. This episode might be one of the earliest recorded queer riots in modern European history. After discussing its political economic context, the course of the mutiny is described in detail, alongside its meaning for the study of past sexualities. Re-interpreting this mutiny as an act of self-defense of the youth against a morbid environment, this paper draws parallels between this insubordination and later queer riots to hold that the fight for queer/trans liberation and the fight to end incarceration and policing have been historically tied. The paper ends by defending the necessity to re-anchor Western queer politics in anticolonialism and carceral abolitionism, against inclusion in the neoliberal project.