France: justice called to decide on the parentage of a transgender mother
The Toulouse Court of Appeal is due to render its decision on February 9, 2022 regarding Claire, 53, who conceived a child before her transition and who wishes to be officially declared the mother of her daughter.
(Illustrative image) AP - Jean-Francois Badias
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
A transgender woman, recognized as a woman in the civil status, but having conceived a child before her transition, can she be officially declared a mother?
It is to this complex question that French justice must answer on February 9, 2022.
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The Toulouse Court of Appeal must indeed render its decision about Claire, 53, and her family who have been fighting for more than eight years against this legal vacuum.
A woman born in a man's body, Claire officially has no connection with her biological daughter.
When the little one was born in 2014, Claire, although female on her identity papers, had not yet been operated on.
Civil status then refuses to register her as a mother on the birth certificate.
Maître Clélia Richard, lawyer for Claire and his wife, denounces this inconsistency: “
Claire is a woman.
French justice allowed her to find her own identity.
If we have rendered Claire's deep identity and we have to gender the bond of filiation, let's be logical and recognize her as a mother.
»
A change of sex which must appear on the birth certificate
A position also defended by the prosecution, during the hearing last December.
The prosecution who wants, however, that the change of sex of Claire also appears on the birth certificate.
A decision considered stigmatizing for Me Richard.
"
It's an invasion of the child's privacy, we're going to put a flag that will follow the child when he produces his birth certificate, and which will always bring the individual back to this characteristic of which we doesn't care if there is a parent who is trans or not.
»
Beyond Claire's case, this decision will set a precedent for other
transgender
parents .
If the decision is unfavorable, Me Richard intends to seize the European Court of Human Rights.
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To listen
: Transgender, their fight for a re-birth
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