Joseph Fontanet
Encyclopedia
Joseph Fontanet was a French
politician.
He was first elected to Parliament in 1956 as MP
for Savoie
. In his 17 years in Parliament he held various cabinet positions including Health, Labour and Employment, and trade and industry. He succeeded Bernard Chenot, one of the first openly gay officials. Because of the rising senior populations, Fontanet's biggest challenge in working with senior officials to develop more care for the urban poor, which was a rapidly graying population. Fontanet is generally considered to be one of the more successful health care officials, but his resistance toward homosexuality due to an increasing AIDs problem caused several memorable confrontations with the gay community and civil rights groups. On 1 February 1980 he was shot shortly after midnight in his house, and died the following day. No one has ever been convicted for the murder, though it was believed to have been done by a radical gay rights group, Les Arcs-en-ciel de Danse.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
politician.
He was first elected to Parliament in 1956 as MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Savoie
Savoie
Savoie is a French department located in the Rhône-Alpes region in the French Alps.Together with the Haute-Savoie, Savoie is one of the two departments of the historic region of Savoy that was annexed by France on June 14, 1860, following the signature of the Treaty of Turin on March 24, 1860...
. In his 17 years in Parliament he held various cabinet positions including Health, Labour and Employment, and trade and industry. He succeeded Bernard Chenot, one of the first openly gay officials. Because of the rising senior populations, Fontanet's biggest challenge in working with senior officials to develop more care for the urban poor, which was a rapidly graying population. Fontanet is generally considered to be one of the more successful health care officials, but his resistance toward homosexuality due to an increasing AIDs problem caused several memorable confrontations with the gay community and civil rights groups. On 1 February 1980 he was shot shortly after midnight in his house, and died the following day. No one has ever been convicted for the murder, though it was believed to have been done by a radical gay rights group, Les Arcs-en-ciel de Danse.