REPORT.In Paris, several thousand people demonstrate to make visible “the suffering resulting from transphobia”

In Paris, several thousand demonstrators responded to the call of more than 800 groups and personalities to denounce “the ongoing offensive against the rights of trans people” and “for the right to freely dispose of one’s body”.

Place de la République, the demonstrators chant forcefully: “It’s my body, it’s my choice!”. The object of all their concerns is a report made public at the end of March by LR senators on transgender minors. This text recommends preventing access to puberty blockers, hormonal treatments or reassignment surgeries before the age of 18.

In the crowd, a man, Emmanuel, holds a sign reading “Loving father, not failing”. Her son, aged 17, is in transition. At his side, the mother, Marina, adds that she “was lucky that our child spoke to us about it very early”. She recounts the transition journey, which she describes as long, thoughtful and supervised.

“Since the age of 11, he has been followed every week by a psychologist, and then there was a collegial and medical agreement to start hormone therapy at 16 and a half years old”says the mother. “We don’t give puberty blockers or hormonal treatment to our children like candy, and to think that that’s what we’re doing is very clearly an insult to us parents.”

“My son is progressing in his transition, I see him flourishing.”

Depression, harassment, Marina’s son lived through painful years, but today she assures him, he is starting to socialize again, “he lives”. She is convinced of it, “suffering comes from transphobia, it does not come from transidentity”. Marina finally sends this message to the Les Républicains senators: “Thank you for worrying about our children but I don’t want a bill that looks more like an ideology than a law.”

The LR bill resulting from the report on the “transidentification of minors”, according to its official name, must be examined on May 28 in a public session.