In France, for the first time, a trans woman who fathered a child before her gender reassignment, and thus officially as a man, can have her name entered in the birth certificate as a second mother.
An appeals court in Toulouse, southern France, ruled in favor of the woman on Wednesday after a year-long legal battle.
The 52-year-old, whose case was tried in court under the fictional name Claire, has been officially registered as a woman for years but only later underwent gender reassignment surgery.
In 2014, she went to court because the registrar did not want to put her on her daughter's birth certificate as the second mother.
In 2018, an appeals court in Montpellier allowed the family to register Claire neither as a father nor as a mother, but as a “biological parent” – that was also a first in France.
But the family was not satisfied with that.
In 2020, the French Court of Cassation overturned the decision, as the definition of "biological parent" was not provided for in French law.
The chief justices referred the case to the Court of Appeal in Toulouse.
The court in Toulouse finally stated that Claire can be entered in the certificate as the mother, since "in this case two maternal descents could be determined".
Claire's lawyer Clélia Richard spoke of a groundbreaking judgment.
The "simplicity of the situation" is finally reflected in French law.
Claire's daughter is also not the only child affected.
The court decision will therefore "reassure" many parents and parents-to-be in France.