The little sentence did not go unnoticed. Traveling to the island of Sein, in Finistère, Emmanuel Macron tackled the left’s program by evoking “completely ludicrous things like going to change sex in town hall”under the frightened eyes of the people around him.
Going to change your gender at town hall, what does that mean? The measure is indeed in the program of the New Popular Front under the chapter Extending the rights of women and LGBTQI people: “Authorize the change of civil status freely and free of charge in front of a civil status officer. »
Also read. Girls, boys, neither or both… They chose to be who they wanted to be
The Civil Code modified since 2016
Currently, according to the service-public.fr website, to change the gender indication on your civil status documents, it is not necessary to have undergone medical treatment or to have had an operation. “You must demonstrate that the sex indicated on your marital status does not correspond to that of your social life (gender identity). The request is made to the court »specifies the French administration website.
The European Court of Human Rights condemned the French state in a judgment of June 6, 2017, finding that it was not acceptable to make sex change conditional on medical treatment.
Read also: Cisgender, non-binary, intersex… Does the law recognize gender identity in France?
In the meantime, the legislator had modified the Civil Code in November 2016. Article 61-5 has since provided in its first paragraph that “ any emancipated adult or minor who demonstrates by sufficient evidence that the entry relating to their sex in the civil status documents does not correspond to that in which they appear and in which they are known may obtain a modification thereof. “.
And article 61-6 paragraph 3 adds that “the fact of not having undergone medical treatment, a surgical operation or sterilization cannot justify the refusal to grant the request”.
The measure defended by the New Popular Front is therefore only an administrative simplification to avoid cumbersome procedures, judged by certain trans people as too long and even humiliating.
Emmanuel Macron pleaded for simplification in 2022
The idea is not new. In 2022, a certain… Emmanuel Macron himself pleaded for simplifying gender change in an interview with the magazine Stubborn : “People who engage in a transition process must be respected in their choice and their lives must not be made more complex by administrative procedures if they are unnecessary. » What the New Popular Front wants today and what Emmanuel Macron of 2024 rejects.
If his remarks caused outrage on the left and among associations fighting against homophobia, they were also poorly received in his own camp: “For trans people, for LGBT people, for everyone… We must reject all stigmatization in political discourse and advance rights,” thus emphasized on X the former Deputy Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, candidate for the legislative elections.
