French President Emmanuel Macron accused of “stigmatising trans people”

French President Emmanuel Macron is under fire after accusing the New Popular Front, a left-wing alliance built for the upcoming legislative elections, of promoting “completely crazy things, like going to the town hall to change your sex.”

The New Popular Front’s manifesto includes a proposal to “authorise a [cost] free change of civil status before a registrar,” which the president characterised as being among the “gruesome things” in the programme of the “extreme left.”

Under the current system, requests to change the gender indicated in legal documents must be made before a judge. While there is no obligation of having received gender affirming surgery, one must “prove that the sex indicated on your civil status does not correspond to that of your social life (gender identity),” the French administration’s website says. Other EU countries including Spain and Belgium have moved to allow gender self-determination.

Progressistes LGBT+, an organisation founded by a “collective of LGBT+ activists supporting Emmanuel Macron” and affiliated to the president’s party said it “deeply regrets [Macron’s] comments aimed at stigmatising transgender people.”