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People attend a medieval festival at Château de la Hunaudaye in western France on Oct. 18 (local time). The photo is unrelated to the article. / Photo by Lim Yu-jung, Paris Correspondent

As awareness of LGBTQ+ rights grows, changes are also emerging in France's traditionally conservative administrative system.

French broadcaster BFM reported on Oct. 27 (local time) that several civil society groups and an individual had filed a lawsuit against the government, seeking changes to questions they consider discriminatory on public service forms.

The plaintiffs, comprising four civil society groups and one individual, filed the case with the Conseil d'État, France's highest administrative court, arguing that binary questions requiring people to identify as either male or female in public services are discriminatory.

According to court documents reviewed by AFP, the plaintiffs include four organizations — Stop Homophobie, Bi'Cause, Mousse and Tous.Tes — and one nonbinary individual, who does not identify exclusively as male or female. They filed the lawsuit over three online public services, alleging abuse of authority by the government.

In France, some online public services, including filing criminal complaints, registering organizations and submitting value-added tax returns, currently require users to select either "Monsieur" (Mr.) or "Madame" (Ms.). The plaintiffs argued that public service forms provided by the Interior Ministry and other government agencies force individuals to choose between male and female.

Étienne Deshoulières, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, stressed that the government has no need to know a person's gender for certain administrative procedures and that requiring such information constitutes an abuse of authority. He added that transgender individuals may have different gender designations across official documents, potentially exposing their personal histories and causing humiliating situations when accessing public services.

The plaintiffs reportedly decided to take legal action after previously asking administrative authorities to revise the binary gender questions but receiving no favorable response.

They cited a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the European Union's highest court, as the legal basis for their case. On Jan. 9, 2025, the court emphasized that personal information cannot be required merely because collecting it is customary and should only be requested when necessary to provide a service.

France's Conseil d'État also ruled on July 31 last year that the French national railway company SNCF could not require passengers to select a gender when booking tickets through its application.

"The less personal information public services require, the fewer opportunities there are to categorize people, treat them differently and discriminate against them without justification," Deshoulières said. "What matters is not adding a third option to gender questions, but avoiding asking about gender when it is not strictly necessary."

                                                                                                               Lim Yu-jung