The launch of France’s first gay television channel, Pink TV, on Monday has been touted as a big step for television and a new era for homosexuality in this largely Roman Catholic country.
French front pages have heralded the launch for days, with Paris tabloid Le Parisien carrying ”The gay tide” as a banner headline on Monday over a photo of a rainbow flag.
A pair of pink stilettos graced the front page of this weekend’s Liberation newspaper, which endorsed the channel in an editorial titled ”Good one”.
The editorial, like Pink’s founders, says the channel’s arrival shows the time is ripe for such a venture in France, which is at times surprisingly conservative and still divided over homosexuality.
The channel is ”a giant leap for television, a small step in high heels”, presenter Eric Gueho says in a promotional clip.
Available on cable and satellite television, the channel is largely financed by France’s three main commercial networks.
Aside from daily doses of Wonder Woman and Japanese ”manga” cartoons, Pink plans to broadcast movies, documentaries, music programmes and debates on issues such as gay parenthood and homophobia.
There will be series including Queer as Folk, as well as X-rated films four nights a week after midnight.
That Pink aims to be an eye-opener is apparent in one of its advertisements showing a famous 1984 photograph of then French president Francois Mitterrand holding hands with ex-German leader Helmut Kohl.
”A relationship is about more than just sex,” says the advertisement. The image comes from a historic ceremony of Franco-German reconciliation to commemorate World War I at the site of the bloody battle of Verdun. — Sapa-AP