French Court Rules Father Who Identifies as Woman Cannot Be ‘Mother’ on Daughter’s Birth Certificate
PARIS — France’s highest court has ruled that a man who identifies as a woman cannot be listed as “mother” on his six-year-old daughter’s birth certificate.
According to reports, the man, who began identifying as a woman in 2011 and changed his name to Claire, conceived with his wife in 2014. Following the birth of their daughter, he sought to be recognized as the child’s second mother on her birth certificate and has fought for the matter for the past six years.
In 2018, an appeals court said that the 51-year-old could be marked as the “biological parent,” which would be a new term on a birth certificate, but the Cour de Cassation, France’s Supreme Court, overturned that decision this month and sent the case back to a lower court.
According to France 24, the court said that “Claire” would have to adopt the girl. The couple has two other children together.
“[A] transgender man turned woman, who procreates with his male gametes, following the modification of the civil registration, retains the right to claim a biological relationship with the child. But this can only done “using the means of declaring filiation reserved for the father,” the Cour de Cassation wrote, according to Alliance Vita.
It said that being listed as the father reflects “the actual conditions of the child’s conception and birth” and secures the child’s “right to know one’s personal origins.” The court also stated that the birth certificate should be the same as her siblings, in order to have consistency and be non-discriminatory.
Attorney Clelia Richard, who is representing the man, characterized the ruling as “scandalous,” adding that “the fight is unfortunately not over.” She has vowed to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
The Association of Parents and Future Gay and Lesbian Parents (APGL) also criticized the decision, stating that the girl has always seen “Claire” as her mother and, “The judgment of the Cour de Cassation shows the extent to which our law of filiation shows a total maladjustment to our society and to the emergence of new families, not envisaging as a matter of principle that a woman can be a mother ‘ab initio’ without having given birth.”
As previously reported, while some view transgenderism and gender confusion as a medical condition, Christians believe the matter is also, at its root, a spiritual issue — one that stems from the same predicament all men everywhere face without Christ.
The Bible teaches that all are born with the Adamic sin nature, having various inherent feelings and inclinations that are contrary to the law of God, and being utterly incapable of changing by themselves.
It is why Jesus came: to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Scripture outlines that Jesus came to be the propitiation for men’s sins (1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10), a doctrine in Christianity known as substitutionary atonement, and to save men from the wrath of God for their violations against His law (Romans 4:25, Romans 5:9, Romans 5:16), a doctrine known as justification.
The Bible also teaches about regeneration, as in addition to sparing guilty men from eternal punishment, Christ sent his Holy Spirit to make those who would repent and believe the gospel new creatures in the here and now, with new desires and an ability to do what is pleasing in the sight of God by His indwelling and empowerment (Ezekiel 11:19, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Titus 3:5).
Jesus said that men must be born again, and have their very nature transformed by the Spirit from being in Adam to being in Christ, or they cannot see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3-8).
The late Anglican preacher J.C. Ryle once said, “Can any change his own heart? No! The thing is impossible. We can no more quicken and impart life to our souls than we can to our bodies; we can no more rise and become new men in our own strength than wash away sins by our own performances. It is impossible! The natural man is as helpless as Lazarus was when he lay still and cold and motionless in the tomb. We may remove the stone, as it were, and expose the sad work of death — but we can do no more.”
“There must be a power far mightier than any power of earth in exercise before the natural man can awake and arise and come forth as a new creature. And to do all this is the special office of the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised to send. It is He who quickens; it is He who gives life.”
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