Can a municipality adjust the subsidies it grants to the city’s sports clubs based on sex but also on the gender claimed by the participants? The question will be examined this Thursday morning, June 27, by the Rennes administrative court following an appeal filed by the association Jurists for Children and eight taxpayers who request the cancellation of a deliberation taken to this effect by the municipal council on June 18. September 2023.
That day, the body deliberated on the proposal defended by Frédéric Bourcier, deputy for sports of the socialist mayor Nathalie Appéré, which aims to “revisit and modernize the criteria for awarding operating subsidies allocated to Rennes sports associations” to adapt them to the new sports policy « plus mixed and inclusive » what the left-wing coalition renewed in the 2020 elections wants to put in place.
A variable value depending on age, sex and gender
New “attribution regulations” presented thus specifies that the overall envelope to be distributed among the approximately 280 clubs which are eligible for a subsidy will now be distributed according to four groups of distinct criteria which weigh more or less heavily in the calculation: 35% for the workforce, 25% for solidarity, 15% for the level of supervision and, finally, 25% for travel.
It is not surprising that the subsidy varies depending on the number of members of a club. On the other hand, the attached table which specifies the “coefficient value” allocated to each licensee or member according to their age, sex or gender raises eyebrows among opposition elected officials, or even more.
Thus, an adult woman is assigned a coefficient of 20, twice as much as an adult man, while a minor is worth 40 points compared to only 30 for a boy. Above all, the new calculation method introduces an additional category, that of gender “non-binary” which designates people who do not recognize themselves in either of the two biological sexes, male and female. In doing so, a club which declares a “major non-binary” will be awarded 20 coefficient points and 40 for a “minor non-binary”.
An ideology that “infiltrates everywhere”
“In practice, this amounts to asking each licensee, including a 5-year-old child who just wants to take tennis lessons, to declare themselves to be a boy, a girl or non-binary. That’s to say we’re walking on our heads! “, underlines Aude Mirkovic, spokesperson for Jurists for Children.
This is why the association decided to take administrative action to request the cancellation of a deliberation which resulted, by 51 votes for and 10 against, in the adoption of a system that it considers to be “illegal and infringing the principle of equality of citizens, respect for the private life of individuals and the right to mental health of minors”, as detailed in the document “introductory appeal” what The cross was able to consult.
“Beyond the very solid legal arguments that we present, we above all want to raise awareness about the way in which gender ideology infiltrates everywhere in society to disqualify the reality of sex in favor of people’s feelings, which seems to us extremely violent and dangerous, in particular for the youngest who need stable reference points to build themselves,” insiste Aude Mirkovic.
Requested by The crossthe Rennes town hall did not wish to respond to our request for an interview. “As this is an ongoing procedure, we will not comment,” replied the press service, referring to the deliberative session which sparked the controversy, still visible on YouTube.
