The fight of a transgender woman to be recognized as the biological mother of her daughter
She is the victim of a legal paradox and her unprecedented case arrives this Wednesday before the magistrates of the civil chamber of the Toulouse Court of Appeal. Claire, a 52-year-old transgender woman, does not appear on her daughter’s birth certificate, although she is the biological parent. The child was born in 2014. She was conceived by Claire’s wife. At the time, the latter had already been recognized as a woman in the civil registry since 2011, but the couple’s third child was conceived before she was acquired.
Claire therefore claims her registration as “mother” in the civil status registers and the birth certificate of the seven-year-old girl, where to date only her wife appears as a parent. At the very beginning, a registrar even advised Claire to go through adoption, a shame for a biological parent.
Claire’s lawyer cautiously optimistic
For the hearing this Wednesday, Clélia Richard, Claire’s lawyer, says she is “cautious, but optimistic”. “If she is a woman in civil status and if she is the biological parent of the child, it is obvious, she must appear as a mother on the child’s birth certificate,” she said.
The general prosecutor’s office of the Toulouse Court of Appeal is also on the same line. He recommends in his written conclusions to “transcribe the parentage link on the birth certificate as the mother of the child”. But he also wants the judgment to modify civil status to be mentioned on the birth certificate. Clélia Richard is opposed to it, because she sees it as a “discriminating” factor.
Another couple soon in the same situation
The Toulouse decision could set a precedent. The lawyer sees in this possible “first in France” the opportunity to “regain our rank as a country of human rights”. It would also put an end to years of judicial wandering and crown “a beautiful love story”. Claire’s wife accompanied her transition.
This Wednesday, they will be accompanied by others to the courthouse by a couple who will find themselves in exactly the same situation as they, at the birth of their child in the coming weeks.