Much of the building may still be devoid of furniture, and the garden little more than wood chippings, but there’s colour everywhere – on rainbow doormats, the rainbow tape cordoning off the veg patch-to-be, and kaleidoscopic posters emblazoned with wordplays like pépé, pédé et pro du potager (‘grandpa, faggot and gardening pro’).
The residents at La Maison de la Diversité have heard such insults time and again, but now they’re reclaiming them. It’s moving-in day at France’s first senior living residence for the LGBTQIA+ community and allies, and it’s a hive of activity.
“I cried when they told me I had a place,” says Alice*, 58. After living most of her adult life as gay, she came out as trans five years ago. Having been attacked three times in just five years in Mâcon – a city in Bourgogne, north of Lyon, which she describes as having a “small-town mentality” – moving into La Maison de la Diversité means safety and security.
