read this guys story.
, when he was 16, he was in a public garden (le Square Steinbach) notorious as a "cruising" ground for men. While he was there, his watch was stolen, a gift that his godmother had given to him on his recent communion. Reporting the theft to the police meant that, unknown to him, his name was added to a list of homosexuals held by the police (homosexuality had not been illegal in France since 1792, and was only re-criminalized by the Vichy Regime in 1942)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Seel