80 years ago Jean Moulin, heroic symbol of the Resistance, died after being tortured by the Gestapo. Because he was a child of Béziers, the city decided to devote many commemorations to him in 2023. In this historical context, the play Jean Moulin, Gospel of the playwright Jean-Marie Besset, evoking in particular his homosexuality, had initially been programmed. But under pressure from the family of the great French resistance fighter, the mayor of Béziers Robert Ménard, took the decision to cancel the performances scheduled at the Béziers theater.
The author of the play Jean-Marie Besset, former director of the national dramatic center of Montpellier, immediately reacted in the columns of the Midi Libre by expressing his indignation: “I find that this behavior of the family and the elected is not honest, that they are trying to hide the truth from the Moulin man, and that they are based on homophobic prejudices”.
This piece created in 2015 by Jean-Marie Besset has therefore already been performed many times. The playwright defends his originality by affirming that “Jean Moulin loved boys and that did not prevent him from being a hero.” But if he also admits that this point in Jean Moulin’s private life is based on “more clues than evidence”, he wants to show with his play Jean Moulin, Èvanglage, how homosexuality had to be hidden there. 80 years ago.
Gilbert Benoît, husband of Cécile Escoffier, a cousin of the hero of the Resistance, gave the reasons why the family vetoed performances of Jean-Marie Besset’s play: “If Jean Moulin had been homosexual, that wouldn’t have been dishonorable, but we like historical truth”. A point now that historians will have to clarify in order to extinguish or revive this controversy.
