French Student who Spearheaded #MeTooGay Movement Found Dead
On Tuesday, February 9, the Huffington Post reports that Guillaume T., the 20-year-old student who founded #MeTooGay, was found dead in his student room at Paris-Nanterre University.
On January 21 he tweeted an accusation that Paris adviser Maxime Cochard and his companion, Victor Laby, had raped him when he was "particularly vulnerable" in October 2018. "After more than two years, without knowing how to put the words on what happened to me, I realize that I was raped by Maxime Cochard, counselor of Paris, and his companion [...] in October 2018, when I was only 18 and was particularly vulnerable," he wrote on Twitter. He then denounced " a form of control " of the couple, writes the French site T�TU.
The elected Parisian official called the tweet "a totally false accusation" and announced a libel action, but he was asked to withdraw from his political activities by the Communist Party. Guillaume then received many messages of support, to which he responded: "Thank you for all the messages of support, I could not answer all there are really too many. I intend to fight for justice to be done and I can see that I will be surrounded, accompanied and supported in all my efforts."
#MeTooGay has taken off as a forum for victims of sexual abuse and violence to express themselves, T�TU reports in a separate report.
A crowd of some 100 of Guillaume's friends and relatives gathered outside the Communist Party headquarters in Paris on Wednesday, February 10, for a rally to "honor his memory and denounce the complicity of the Communist Party," reports T�TU. "Some came to the rally with their hands stained with blood to symbolize the dread caused by Guillaume's sudden disappearance. Candles and smoke bombs were lit and a minute's silence was held to honor his memory," writes the HuffPost.
"An investigation to find the causes of death has been opened, said the Nanterre prosecutor's office. According to the first elements of the investigation, no link was established between the charges of rape and the death of the student."
The libel action has been dropped, but it is said to have weighed heavily on Guillaume over the past few weeks. He was also troubled by the negative responses he had received since posting his tweet. "He experienced a real campaign of denigration," a 20-year-old student named Allan told T�TU at the rally, recounting having seeing Guillaume on Saturday and that "he was not doing well," feeling he wasn't believed in the press. "How can a person who denounces rape be dragged through the mud like that, without our word being heard?" asked Marie, a woman at the event. Guillaume's lawyer said he found "his death unfair, terrible and frightening," and that he "was the victim of a foul smear campaign."
Twitter responded to his death: