Legal situation about trans in France
It is difficult to obtain information on transgender persons. There are no official statistics.
Transsexuals have the right to change the sex stated on their birth certificate. This right appears in no law, but in jurisprudence. In 1992, France was found guilty by the European Court of Human Rights on 25 March (B. v. France) of violating Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Seized by a complaint by Miss B., a transsexual man who had become a woman, The European Court found that French law, by requiring constant revelation of her official sex, placed the complainant in a situation that was incompatible with her right to privacy.
Following this European verdict, the Plenary Assembly of the Court of Cassation amended its jurisprudence relative to transsexualism. It now allows the birth certificate to be amended after a sex change in the name of privacy rights: “the principle of the right to privacy justifies that the civil status of the transsexual person indicate the sex he or she appears to be”(11 December 1992, JCP 1993, II, 21991).
Transsexuals also have the right to change their forename. Changing the sex stated in one's civil status automatically gives one the right to change one's forename if one so wishes.
Like any person, a transsexual has the right to the respect of his or her family life, as protected by article 8 of the E.C.H.R. He or she may marry in his or her new sex, a right which has never been prohibited in France.
Finally, a transsexual may be granted visiting rights to an ex cohabiting partner's children. (V. CA Aix-en-Provence, 12 March 2002.)
For other issues, it is difficult to obtain reliable statistical data. The High Authority for the Elimination of Discrimination and for Equality (HALDE) has been seized several times regarding questions related to transsexuals. See for example proceedings n° 2008/29 18 February 2008: Clarisse XXXXX was immediately excluded at work, and then dismissed following the announcement of her change of gender.
The time between her revealing her transsexualism and her dismissal was so short, as established by the HALDE, that it revealed that her employer's attitude and her dismissal were based upon Clarisse XXXXX's sex change.
An analysis of case law shows that any discrimination based upon a person's transsexualism is equivalent to discrimination on the basis of sex, which is contrary to the Directive on the equality of men and women. As a result, the dismissal may be considered null and void by virtue Article L. 122-45 of the Labour Code. The solution seems to be accepted as a doctrine in France.
The High Authority for the Elimination of Discrimination and for Equality has requested to present its observations before the Montpellier Conciliation Board as part of the current proceedings.
