News (World)

Trans woman told she has to adopt her own child to be the kid’s mother

Transgender flag being waved in a crowd
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A transgender woman will have to adopt her own child in order to be recognized as a mother, a court ruled.

France’s highest court overturned a lower court ruling that allowed 51-year-old transgender woman “Claire” to be recognized as her own child’s “biological parent” and said that she must either be listed as the child’s father or she must adopt her own kid to be a second mother.

Related: How a transgender dad won the right to be the legal father of the child he carried

Claire’s lawyer Clélia Richard called the ruling “scandalous” and “a missed opportunity.”

“So the little six-year-old girl is going to keep her birth certificate with only one of her two mothers, only one of her parents, the mother who gave birth to her, and the other doesn’t have a right to be noted on it,” Richard said in a telephone press conference. “It’s abhorrent.”

In 2011, Claire got the gender marker on her ID corrected to officially recognize her as a woman. In 2014, she and her wife had a child together, using Claire’s sperm and the wife’s egg. The wife carried the child.

Claire wanted to appear on her child’s birth certificate as her mother, but was refused. In 2018, a lower court ruled that she could not be considered the child’s mother but could be considered a “biological parent,” a new category that the court created.

This past Wednesday, France’s highest court vacated most of that ruling. They kept the part that said Claire couldn’t be the child’s mother but said that the title of “biological parent” couldn’t be created. If Claire wanted to be recognized as her child’s mother, she would have to adopt her.

The high court “explained in very biological terms that Claire could only be a father,” said lawyer Mathieu Stoclet, who worked on the case.

“Claire can be recognized as a father on her daughter’s official paperwork even though she is a woman according to her civil statute,” Stoclet continued, calling the court’s decision “incoherent.”

The Association of Gay and Lesbian Parents (APGL) denounced the court’s ruling.

“The court order constitutes a considerable regression back to a concept of family that we thought we had buried,” said Bertrand Périer of APGL in a statement.

Claire’s lawyers said they are considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

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