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Homosexuality was not looked on favourably in post-war France. Certain forms of homosexual behaviour (notably relations with or between minors) were criminal offences and strict gender norms were inculcated from childhood, but it was also the age of the Kinsey Report (1948). A number of young gays publicly affirmed and openly displayed their homosexuality. Despite progress in legislation and changing representations of homosexuality, the varying reactions of parents faced with their son’s declaration of homosexuality have not fundamentally changed over time, being intertwined as they were with gender issues and the question of heterosexual norms. Yesterday as today, the idea that homosexuality is a deviant form of behaviour remains widespread in the collective imagination, especially in France, which remains a very conservative country.