French court rules transgender woman cannot be recognised as child’s mother

France24 16 September 2020
France’s highest court ruled Wednesday that a transgender woman cannot be officially recognised as the biological mother of the child she conceived with her wife, in a ruling described as “scandalous” by her lawyer.

To become one of the six-year-old girl’s two legal mothers, the 51-year-old transgender woman would have to adopt her, the Cour de Cassation ruled.

Born male, the applicant was recognised as a woman by French authorities in 2011. She then had a child with her wife in 2014, having not undergone the operation to have her male reproductive organs removed.

She has fought ever since to be recognised as the child’s second mother, not father.

In 2018, an appeals court in the city of Montpellier ascribed her the status of “biological parent”, a new category.

But the Cour de Cassation threw out most of that ruling on Wednesday, and refered the case back to a lower court for a new hearing.
READ MORE: https://www.france24.com/en/20200916-french-court-rules-transgender-woman-cannot-be-recognised-as-child-s-mother