Last week, Paris Foot Gay said its members were victims of homophobia when Creteil Bebel, a team of Muslim players, refused to play them this month.

The French amateur league said it excluded Creteil for “refusing the match on discriminatory grounds.”

“It’s a permanent exclusion, they will never be reinstated,” league president Jacques Stouvenel said.

“I condemn sexual tourism, which is a disgrace. I condemn pedophilia, which I have never in any way participated in,” Frederic Mitterrand, 62, nephew of late President Francois Mitterrand, said in a national prime time television interview.

“All those who accuse me of this kind of thing should be ashamed.”

In a 2005 book, “La mauvaise vie” or “The Bad Life,” Mitterrand describes Bangkok’s brothels in rich, torrid detail, and the joy and freedom of paying “boys” for sex.

On Thursday, Mitterrand said on TF1 television that the book was not a strict autobiography. He admitted to “errors” in paying for sex in the past, but said he had relations only with men his age.

The exploits described in the book came back to haunt him recently, after he jumped to the defense of filmmaker Roman Polanski. Polanski is currently in a Swiss prison on U.S. charges relating to his sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, when he was 43.

As excerpts of Mitterrand’s book circulated publicly in France this week, a cascade of political figures called for him to quit or be fired after a leader of the far-right National Front launched a tirade on television against Mitterrand and read excerpts from the 4-year-old book.

Mitterrand shot back firmly Thursday, saying he had no intention of leaving the government. He said he spoke to President Nicolas Sarkozy – who has not spoken publicly about the book – Thursday morning and Sarkozy “confirmed his confidence” in the culture minister.

The affair is awkward for France and especially Sarkozy, whose embrace of figures outside the conservative fold such as Mitterrand has upset the governing UMP party. Mitterrand’s critics say it’s about child sex tourism, which France’s government is campaigning against. But it also involves a politician’s sex life, which many French consider private business, and a public figure’s recognition of his homosexuality.

“We must not confuse pedophilia and homosexuality,” Mitterrand said on TF1, visibly upset by days of high-profile criticism.

He said his book was neither a memoir nor a novel. “I preferred to leave things vague,” he said.

Asked whether he made a mistake in paying for sex in Thailand with “boys,” he said: “An error, without a doubt. A crime, no.”

“Each time I was with people who were my age, or who were five years younger – there wasn’t the slightest ambiguity – and who were consenting,” he said.

He has said that he uses the term “boys” loosely, in his life and in the book.

The far-right National Front party says it went looking for dirt on Mitterrand after his praise for Polanski.

“Frederic Mitterrand must resign because his presence in the government as a representative of France is an indelible stain (for) the entire world,” National Front Vice President Marine Le Pen said Thursday. Le Pen triggered the controversy earlier this week.

Leftists joined in. Socialist Arnaud Montebourg said Thursday that Mitterrand “deliberately acted in violation of national and international laws” and appealed to Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon to fire him.

“It is impossible that a minister representing France can encourage violation of his own international commitments to fight sexual tourism,” Montebourg’s statement said.

In the book, written in the first person, Mitterrand’s narrator describes being taunted in childhood by peers and being troubled by his attraction to other boys.

In Bangkok, surrounded by “boys” or “kids” who tell him in broken English “I want you happy,” he finds a liberty he never had when he was a child.

“Money and sex, I am at the heart of my system, that which is functioning at last, because I know that no one will refuse me. … I can at last choose. The Western morality, the endless guilt, the shame that I drag with me, shatter,” one passage reads.

France Police, a minority police union, announced plans Thursday to seek a judicial investigation against Mitterrand under part of the penal code that makes it a crime to frequent prostitutes who are minors.

The book raised no more than literary eyebrows when it was published, and it drew little attention when Mitterrand was named to the government in June. Until he became France’s guardian of culture, Mitterrand was known primarily as a television personality who made eloquent profiles of the famous.

The culture minister’s uncle, President Mitterrand, was a classic example of the hands-off policy applied to politicians’ private lives by the French media and his colleagues, many aware for years of his daughter born out of wedlock – and whom he introduced to the nation before dying of cancer.

The Paris Foot Gay team says Tuesday it received an e-mail from the Creteil Bebel club canceling a match scheduled for last Sunday.

“Because of the principles of our team, which is a team of devout Muslims, we can’t play against you,” the e-mail said, according to Paris Foot Gay. The e-mail received Saturday said, “Our convictions are much more important than a simple football match.”

Paris Foot Gay said in a statement that it asked the amateur league to sanction Creteil Bebel.

Zahir Belgarbi, identified as a spokesman for Creteil Bebel, told France-Info radio he apologized if “anyone felt upset or hurt.”

The party has been in disarray since Royal, a Socialist member of Parliament, was beaten by Sarkozy for the presidency in May 2007. The party has so far failed to mount an effective opposition.

Delanoe, who is openly gay, and Royal, who is gay-positive, are among eight candidates seeking the Socialist Party nod to run against Sakozy in 2012.

This week the party has been meeting to adopt a platform. Each of the candidates has proposed their own manifesto. The winning platform will give its candidate a clear advantage for the leadership.

In an initial vote, Royal came out on top, about 29 percent ahead of Delanoe, who was second. A final vote is expected on the weekend and the party will meet in November to chose a candidate for the presidency..

Delanoe’s platform calls for a “decidedly reformist left, that is pro-European, pro-environment and efficient.” Royal seeks to move the party closer to the middle.

In the last presidential election, conservative Sarkozy claimed the middle ground – a move credited with helping him win.

In March, Delanoe romped to an easy re-election as Paris mayor.

If he were to win the presidency, it would make Delanoe the first openly gay man in modern times to lead a major power.

In 1998, while he was a relatively obscure city councilor, Delanoe came out in a television interview, breaking an unwritten French law that a politician’s private life should remain private.

He later said that friends urged him not to go public, but that he overruled them because of the good he felt it would do to advance gay rights. “Would not my intervention help, even if only in a small way, to lighten the burden of secrecy borne by so many people?” he wrote in his 2004 biography.

In 2001, Delanoe was elected the capital’s first ever Socialist mayor and the first gay person to head a city government in a major city.

A year later, Delanoe was stabbed by a deranged homophobe as he presided over an all-night cultural party at city hall.

He was rushed to the hospital, suffering a single stab wound to his abdomen. Doctors at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital operated on Delanoe for more than three hours. He would spend nearly a month in the hospital.

Police arrested a man at the scene. During interrogations, he told investigators he hated gays and politicians.

Since becoming mayor, Delanoe has been hugely popular, particularly with the poor and middle classes.

But his popularity also is high outside Paris -  and a growing number in the Socialist Party see him as their strongest hope for defeating Sarkozy.

Last year when she ran against Sarkozy, Royal said that if her party formed the next government she would introduce a gay marriage bill.

“Opening up marriage to same-sex couples is needed in the name of equality, visibility and respect,” Royal told gay publication Tetu.

Benedict was greeted at Orly airport by conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

The pope urged France to take Christianity into account despite its secular tradition, saying that church and state should be open to each other.

“The presence of Christian values is fundamental for the survival of our nations and our societies,” Benedict told reporters on the flight to Paris.

The Pope’s visit is expected to meet with demonstrations.

Last week the daily Le Figaro newspaper reported that French police were spying on LGBT, HIV/AIDS groups and other critics of the Pope’s views, to determine what plans were being made for protests.

Among the groups under surveillance, according to the newspaper, are ACT-UP, an outspoken critic of the Vatican’s refusal to accept condoms as a means of preventing HIV/AIDS, and LGBT groups which oppose Rome’s position on gay marriage and civil unions.

French authorities, Le Figaro reported, are anxious to avoid a repeat of the condom shower that greeted the Pope in Sydney, Australia, in July.

The Vatican believes abstinence, not condoms, is most effective in preventing HIV/AIDS. Last year, it issued a statement calling condoms risky and unsafe.

The pope also has been a harsh critic of same-sex unions, most recently blasting the California Supreme Court for striking down that state’s ban on gay marriage. In April, gay Catholics and other LGBT groups demonstrated against the papal marriage stand during Benedict’s visit to the US.

Le Figaro said the surveillance was being conducted by France’s anti-terror squad, which also is keeping an eye on suspected al-Qaeda sympathizers.

During his visit to France Benedict will meet with Jewish and Islamic leaders.

The party has been in disarray since Segolene Royal was beaten by Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidency in May 2007 and the party has failed to mount an effective opposition.

Party members are due to choose a new leader in November and Royal already has said she would seek to renew her leadership.

Delanoe’s declaration in an interview with Le Monde newspaper puts to rest months of speculation.

“Yes, I will put all my energy at the service of my beliefs,” the mayor told Le Monde newspaper when asked if he would run.

In March Delanoe romped to an easy re-election as Paris mayor, fueling speculation his Socialist Party would tap him to run against President Sarkozy in 2012.

If he were to win the presidency it would make Delanoe the first openly gay man in modern times to lead a major power.

In 1998, while he was a relatively obscure city councilor, Delanoe came out in a television interview, breaking an unwritten French law that a politician’s private life should remain private.

He later said that friends urged him not to go public, but that he overruled them because of the good he felt it would do to advance gay rights. “Would not my intervention help even if only in a small way to lighten the burden of secrecy borne by so many people,” he wrote in his 2004 biography.

In 2001 Delanoe was elected the capital’s first ever Socialist mayor and the first gay person to head a city government in a major city.

A year later Delanoe was stabbed by a deranged homophobe as he presided over an all-night cultural party at city hall.

He was rushed to hospital suffering a single stab wound to his abdomen.  Doctors at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital operated on Delanoe for more than three hours.  He spent nearly a month in hospital.

Police arrested a man at the scene.  During interrogations he told investigators he hated gays and politicians.

Since becoming mayor Delanoe has been hugely popular, particularly with the poor and middle classes.

But his popularity also is high outside Paris and a growing number in the Socialist Party see him as their strongest hope for defeating Sarkozy in the next election – scheduled for 2012.

Dr. Mark Wainberg was named a Chevalier, or knight, of the Legion d’honneur for his work fighting the spread of AIDS and HIV.

Wainberg founded McGill University’s AIDS Center in 1984 and co-chaired the International AIDS conference that year.

He also chairs an advisory committee for France’s national AIDS program.

Along with his AIDS research, Wainberg was cited for improving ties between France and Canada.

The Legion d’honneur was first awarded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802.