Departures of note

Hélène Hazera was a French journalist and transgender activist, recognized as the first openly trans journalist in France. Born in 1952 to parents who were members of the French Resistance, she became in the 1970s a prominent face of the Gazolines, a radical group that emerged from the Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire (FHAR). She joined the daily newspaper Libération in 1978, working first as a television columnist and later as a music critic until 1999, breaking ground as an openly trans woman in the French press. After testing positive for HIV, she joined Act Up-Parischery and founded its trans commission, and she remained a tireless advocate for the most precarious members of the community, including sex workers and people living with HIV. From 2002 to 2017 she presented the music program "Chanson Boum" on France Culture, reflecting her lifelong passion for poetry and French chanson. She also appeared in French films in the 1970s and 1980s, notably in Jean-Luc Godard's Sauve qui peut (la vie). Friends remembered her as "the last situationist of France."