Queer Places:
Pau Urban Cemetery
Pau, Departement des Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Aquitaine, France
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André Labarrère (12 January 1928 – 16 May 2006) was a French historian and politician.
A member of the Socialist Party, he was a member of parliament, senator, vice-president of the National Assembly between 1973 and 1974, minister in charge of relations with Parliament from 1981 to 1986, and mayor of the city of Pau from 1971 to 2006.
He has also published several books, on subjects as diverse as the city of Pau, graphology or cinema. He has also hosted television shows.
André Labarrère taught at Laval University in Quebec City between 1959 and 1966. He also hosts programs on art history on television in Montreal and presents programs on graphology, more than a hobby for him.
A socialist militant, he made a name for himself during Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour's visit to Pau. He later joined the Convention of Republican Institutions (CIR) founded by François Mitterrand. He was a member of the National Political Bureau of the Socialist Party from 1968 to 1971 and a member of the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party from 1968. André Labarrère was elected deputy for Pyrénées-Atlantiques for the first time in March 1967. Defeated in 1968, he was re-elected in 1973 and was re-elected in every election until 2001, when he entered the Senate. He was elected general councillor of Pau-Ouest in 1967, re-elected following the division of general councillor of Pau-Jurançon in 1973, 1979, 1985 and resigned in 1988 for cumulation. He was elected regional councillor from the beginning to June 1981, re-elected in March 1986, and resigned the same month. He was President of the Regional Council of Aquitaine from 1979 to 1981. Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister, with responsibility for relations with Parliament from 1981 to 1986, President of the Association of Eco-Mayors from its creation in 1989 until 1999, Mayor of Pau from 1971 to 2006, senator of Pyrénées-Atlantiques from 2001 to 2006, member of the socialist group in the Senate, he was re-elected with 57% of the vote in the first round during the municipal elections of 2001 in a rather conservative city and did not yet exclude in 2006, to stand again in 2008. President of the Syndicat intercommunal de l'agglomération paloise.
André Labarrère makes no secret of his homosexuality, which he nevertheless reveals just after the death of his mother. He remains one of the first French politicians to have announced it publicly. The subject is the theme of his novel, Le Bal des célibataires, published in 1997. This did not prevent him from speaking out in 2004 against the marriage of homosexual couples, at a time when Noël Mamère (MP for the Greens) celebrated in his town hall of Bègles the wedding of a gay couple. He humorously calls himself "the clutch", "the left pedal" in a car," he says. An atypical character, he also speaks of Jean-Marie Le Pen as a friend. The two men rubbed shoulders at the UNEF in 1947-1949. The publication in November 2012 of Philippe Cohen and Pierre Péan Le Pen's book, a French history, claims that there was a homosexual relationship between the two men in the 1970s. He also maintains friendly relations with a clairvoyant convicted in the 1990s for misuse of corporate property. On April 11, 2006, he announced that he had cancer and died a month later. He is buried in the urban cemetery of Pau.
My published books:
