Homosexuality is generally accepted in the Western world in 2015 – except by bigoted idiots – so it’s hard to believe that only 60 years ago that queer couples had to hide their sexuality from pretty much everyone in their lives.

Unfortunately that’s how it was though and these images illustrate this as gay couples were forced to live out their true lives separate from the rest of the world, with only their close family and friends privy to their true identities. Despite that – and the persecution that they may have faced – many of them still wanted to take photographs of their lives together to document their moments of happiness.

These images were found in a scrapbook at a flea market by Sebastien Lifshitz, a photographer from Paris. He was so inspired by them that he actually went on to film a documentary about the homosexuals of the 1950s called ‘Les Invisibles’ – a trailer of which you can see below:

On the slideshow you can see some of the images that inspired Sebastian to make this movie. Although they’re both beautiful and inspiring – these couples literally risked their entire livelihood to document lives at the time, such were attitudes at the time – they should also serve as a reminder of how the majority of the world has progressed since then.

Unfortunately there are still backwards people like this woman and this family that exist these days. Let’s hope it’s not too long before attitudes and people like these are eradicated.

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