The history of homosexual movements, LGBT then LGBTQI (lesbians, gays, bis, trans, queers and intersex), can only be understood in the light of the forms of persecution and oppression against people having relationships affective and sexual with other people of their gender and / or not conforming to the social expectations of their gender. Their emergence dates back to the first half of the nineteenth th century. At the beginning of xxi th century, there is a growing awareness of the demands of the movement LGBTIQ, particularly because of the fight against discrimination, which are at the basis of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000).

In the nineteenth th century, the first thinkers of emancipation of homosexuals lay the foundation of a militant movement which demands the abandonment of the criminalization of pathologizing and social rejection of any non-heterosexual sexuality. In 1836, the Swiss Heinrich Hössli (1784-1864) published in German the first essay asking for the recognition of the rights for the followers of what he called male loves. Almost three decades later, the German jurist Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) wrote between 1864 and 1879 twelve volumes from his “Research on the enigma of love between men” ( Forschungen über das Räthsel der mannmännlichen Liebe). He also disseminated a manifesto for the creation of a federation of Uranists (1865), a term which designates men who love men. Engaged in the fight for the repeal of § 175 of the German penal code which condemns "unnatural relations between men", he publicly declared himself a Uranist in 1869 during the congress of German jurists. He died in exile, in Italy, before the birth of the emancipation movement he called with all his wishes.

It was in 1897 that a first homosexual emancipation movement emerged in Berlin, around the doctor Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), co-founder of the Wissenschaftlich-humanitäre Komitee (WhK - Humanitarian Scientific Committee). The actions of the latter are numerous: petition in favor of the repeal of § 175, publication of books and brochures on homosexuality, publication of a review ( Jahrbuch für sexual Zwischenstufen - Annales des sexualités intermediaries ), distribution of an educational film on the devastation caused by homophobia ( Anders als die anderen - Different from others, 1919). In the process, branches of the Committee were created in several cities in Germany and in neighboring countries (Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, etc.) whose laws condemn homosexuality. Following a split within the WhK, other homosexual militant organizations were formed, such as the Special Community (Gemeinschaft der Eigenen) of the German Adolf Brand (1874-1945) which advocates among others naturism. The Human Rights Union (Bund für Menschenrechte), founded in 1922 by Friedrich Radszuweit (1876-1932), was the first to open up to lesbians. Although their relationships are not condemned by law, some express their desire to join militant organizations that make them visible within the first homosexual movement. At the same time and under the leadership of Hirschfeld, The World League for Sexual Reform was founded in 1921, to which reforming doctors and representatives from twenty-five countries, including sixteen Europeans, joined, proof of the internationalization of the issue. Faced with current homophobia, it demands from States "a rational attitude [...] towards homosexuals, men and women" and the recognition of belonging to the field of private life of sexual relations between consenting adults. The rise of the far right brought the movement to a halt. The violent Nazi repression provoked in 1933 the dissolution of the League, the exile of its members, premises at the end of the first movement of homosexuals and the deportation of these in Europe at war. Only the Circle (der Kreis), established in Zurich and founded in 1932 by Karl Meier (1897-1974), is maintained. Its newsletter, distributed from Switzerland, is also the only regular homosexual publication until the day after the conflict.

Despite the conservatism reigning after the war, discreetly reborn “clubs” promoting homosexual sociability through readings, conferences, excursions, even masked balls. In 1951, the International Committee for Sexual Equality was founded in Amsterdam.(ICSE - International Committee for Sexual Equality) demanding rights for homosexuals. In France, André Baudry (born in 1922) created in 1954 the homophile association Arcadie, a mythological reference to this land where love reigned. The eponymous review is enjoying growing success despite the Mirguet amendment (1960), according to which homosexuality is a “social scourge”, just like alcoholism. In the United Kingdom, the Homosexual Law Reform Society worked, from 1960, for the decriminalization of homosexuality (obtained for England and Wales in 1967).

May 1968 brings new life and allows the birth of revolutionary homosexual groups, inspired by the American Gay Liberation Front (GLF). A namesake movement was thus founded in 1971 in London. The same year are created in FRG the HAW (Homosexual Aktion Westberlin), and in Paris the FHAR (Homosexual Revolutionary Action Front). These groups, in the fight against heterosexism, claim that "queers" and "dykes" (terms they are reclaiming) must seize public space and fight for new rights. During this decade, marches commemorating the riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York (1969) multiplied across Europe (London, Paris, Antwerp, Bremen, Berlin, etc.) and offered unprecedented visibility to homosexual movements.

The 1980s were marked by the adoption of the rainbow flag, the acronym LGBT, by a professionalization of gay and lesbian activism and by the presence of openly homosexual candidates during elections: in France , in 1981, Maurice Cherdo, candidate of the Homosexual Collective of the West of Paris, failed the legislative elections while the German Albert Eckert (born in 1960) became a member of the Alternative list in 1989. The devastation caused by the epidemic of HIV / AIDS prompted the creation of organizations to raise awareness and fight against the scourge (Terrence Higgins Trust in the United Kingdom in 1982, Deutsche Aids Hilfe in 1983, and in France Aides in 1984 and Act'Up in 1989). Faced with these mobilizations, the European Parliament invites its Member States, from 1989, to decriminalize homosexual relations, recognize same-sex unions and, in 1993, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses. Consequently, a convergence of the struggles of sexual minorities is affirmed which is accompanied by the gradual constitution of trans' and intersex movements, which the new acronym LGBTQI reflects. It is up to the Beaumont Continental Association (ABC, 1975) to fight against the pathologization of transsexuals, which was obtained in France in 2010. For its part, the OII (International Organization of Intersex), opposed to the sexual bicategorization, calls for an end to the assignment of sex and the genital mutilation that accompanies it. 

A convergence of the struggles of sexual minorities is affirmed, which is accompanied by the gradual constitution of trans' and intersex movements, reflected in the new acronym LGBTQI. It is up to the Beaumont Continental Association (ABC, 1975) to fight against the pathologization of transsexuals, which was obtained in France in 2010. For its part, the OII (International Organization of Intersex), opposed to the sexual bicategorization, calls for an end to the assignment of sex and the genital mutilation that accompanies it. A convergence of the struggles of sexual minorities is affirmed, which is accompanied by the gradual constitution of trans' and intersex movements, reflected in the new acronym LGBTQI. It is up to the Beaumont Continental Association (ABC, 1975) to fight against the pathologization of transsexuals, which was obtained in France in 2010. For its part, the OII (International Organization of Intersex), opposed to the sexual bicategorization, calls for an end to the assignment of sex and the genital mutilation that accompanies it.

At the beginning of xxi th century, under the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, Member States are more attentive to the demands of the movement LGBTQI. The latter prohibits any discrimination based on sexual orientation and protects transgender people from discrimination based on “sex”, in accordance with the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Outside of Community Europe, the demands are hardly audible, even repressed, as evidenced by the provisions condemning “homosexual propaganda” in Russia since 2013 and the persecution of homosexuals in Chechnya, denounced in 2017 by several European chanceries.

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