Marie Cau is mayor of Tilloy-Lez-Marchiennes, a village of 600 inhabitants in the north of France. Above all, she is the first trans mayor elected in France: born a man, she became a woman. Her own fight is therefore personal: it is to carry the voice of transgender people. But difficult to organize anything in his village. So, it was near Valenciennes that she went recently during a day of awareness of the LGBT + cause.
The book by Marie Cau, Madam Mayor sits prominently on a table at the entrance to the Anzin media library. ” You have good reading », Laughs the mayor of Tilloy-lez-Marchiennes when he meets Valérie Cazin, the director of the media library.
For the first time, this city in northern France, very close to Valenciennes, is organizing workshops aimed at raising awareness and fighting against discrimination against homosexual and transgender people. ” We put a little seed in the ground and what I would like is for it to grow and for everyone to say “oh there is that” », launches Valerie Cazin. The image of the little seed is very interesting because we understand that it will bear fruit “, wants to believe Marie Cau.
This little seed, Marie Cau is obliged to sow it 20 kilometers from her town, because raising the voice of LGBT+ people is difficult in a village of 600 inhabitants: “ A small pride march or a small animation around integration or tolerance, I would like to do things like that! But in small towns like mine, the priority is the school, the roads. The societal is what comes after we have solved the somewhat material problems. So today, my action will be rather outside the village. »
On the program for this awareness day, a rainbow flag made by the inhabitants of the town, the broadcast of “PD”, a short film directed by Olivier Lallart, then a round table in which Marie Cau participates with d other associative actors.
Read alsoFrance: the new anti-LGBT + hate plan struggles to convince associations
” My lie was a prison »
” All my childhood, I was confined to the role of a boy. I had to take on a role that wasn’t the right one, that wasn’t me », develops Maris Cau. At 40, well before becoming mayor, she decides to take responsibility for herself as a girl and it’s a liberation: ” I couldn’t stand lying to myself anymore, pretending to be what I wasn’t and then felt like I was lying to others by cheating on who I was. And I told myself that I would never be free if I didn’t tell the truth. My lie was a prisonnot. »
Before presenting herself, she anxiously anticipates the reactions of the inhabitants, but ends up taking the plunge all the same: “ That’s the strength of my election, it’s that people knew who I was and I asked myself the question: “Was this going to be a foil?” In the end, it had no impact. It will push it to become a non-event. My election, it was a message of hope for many people. To say, so we can be visible , so we can have a normal life, so we can be elected, so I can stop being afraid. »
In the North, another mayor made her transition, this time during her term. And we say to ourselves that the little seed planted by Marie Cau is beginning to bear fruit.
Read alsomy life as mayor [1/5]: In Plougrescant, the mayor stands firm in the face of threats and intimidation