FRANCE: Women’s Rights Activists Facing Possible Prison Sentence, €45000 Fine for ‘Transphobic’ Comments

Two women’s rights activists in France are facing a potential one-year prison sentence and a €45,000 fine for expressing criticism of gender identity ideology. A government-funded LGBT activist organization has filed six legal complaints against Marguerite Stern and Dora Moutot alleging that public comments and published posts they made regarding transgenderism constitute criminal hate speech.

In June, Moutot received a registered letter informing her that the non-profit organization Familles LGBT had initiated legal action against her and Stern over statements they had published in the manifesto of their website, Femelliste, as well as social media posts and quotes from an interview with Stern.

Familles LGBT attorney Étienne Deshoulières accuses Moutot and Stern of making “public insults against a group of persons based on their gender identity,” as well as “public incitement to hatred or violence”. The complaint also refers to Stern as a “militant feminist” and Moutot as an “essentialist feminist,” and slurs them with the dehumanizing label “TERF” (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), an acronym frequently used by trans activists to call for, and justify, violence against women.

One statement highlighted as “public insult” is taken from the Femelliste website, and is therefore levied against both Stern and Moutot. “Currently we find ourselves in a situation where men, ‘trans women’, demand access to our spaces: they win sports competitions in the women’s category, are incarcerated in women’s prisons and sometimes go so far as to rape their female co-inmates, are allowed to enter our single-sex spaces (changing rooms, toilets, centers for women victims of violence),” reads the site’s manifesto.

Other statements on Moutot and Stern’s website that are listed in the lawsuit include, “On what grounds should trans women’s fear of being mocked in men’s restrooms take precedence over women’s fear of being raped?” and “Of course, not all trans people are predators, but we are forced to be wary because transgenderism can be weaponized by any man to access women’s spaces.” The latter statement is characterized as “incitement to hatred or violence”.

In a video made by Stern and Moutot announcing the lawsuit and launching a crowdfunder to cover their legal fees, they point out that it is “strange” to have been accused by attorney Deshoulières of “making sweeping generalizations about trans people,” only to then also be accused of “public insult” over a quote which begins with the caveat, “of course, not all trans people are predators.”

Another example of “public insult” cited by Familles LGBT‘s counsel is a post made to X by Stern which contains a video of an adult man who identifies as a baby. “This man identifies as a baby. So what do we do if he demands to go to preschool, just like trans women demand access to women’s spaces? Do we say yes to pedophilia? Do we try to cure him, or do we applaud?”

Yet another claim against Stern refers to a single sentence from an April 2023 interview with the outlet Breizh: “Under the guise of tolerance and inclusivity, we end up celebrating the mental disorders of people who are unwell.”

Familles LGBT functions primarily as an online legal resource toolkit and informational hub for topics such as adoption and surrogacy. The organization promotes the concept of polygamy, which it refers to as a “trouple” (or “throuple” in English). Downloadable resources on the site were created by lawyer and gay rights activist Étienne Deshoulières.

The Director of Publication for Familles LGBT, Antoine Framery, is also a gay rights activist and shares a close connection with Deshoulières. They work in tandem to run Fiertés Rurales, an association dedicated to bringing Pride marches to rural environments. Deshoulières co-founded the association and serves as its President, while Framery handles communications and media strategies.

The organization Familles LGBT functions in partnership with the associations Mousse and STOP Homophobie, alongside pro bono legal contributions from Deshoulières Avocats, run by the aforementioned attorney. Framery has served as an attaché de presse (press officer) for STOP Homophobie alongside Deshoulières.

A portion of funding for French non-profits like STOP Homophobie, Mousse, Familles LGBT, and Fiertés Rurales comes from the DILCRAH (Délégation Interministérielle à la Lutte Contre le Racisme, l’Antisémitisme et la Haine anti-LGBT), a government delegate body under the Prime Minister that distributes annual financial grants to local and national LGBTQIA+ projects. Local authorities also contribute taxpayer-funding; for example, the Mayor of Paris subsidizes LGBTQIA+ campaigns and events like the Fiertés Rurales marches.

Another core income stream for the activist groups led by attorney Deshoulières comes from litigation. When courts rule in favor of the LGBTQIA+ associations Deshoulières represents, the defendants may be ordered to pay civil damages directly to his non-profits. In individual defamation or hate speech cases, these typically range from €1,000 to €5,000 per association involved.

However, in some cases, defendants are ordered to pay damages to either the state or both the state and the non-profit organizations run by Deshoulières. The activist’s law firm has initiated nearly 200 lawsuits with the vast majority related to cases of “hate speech”. These cases have accumulated over a period of over a decade, beginning roughly around 2013 up to the present day.

Both Mousse and STOP Homophobie, which are represented by Deshoulières, have previously instigated legal proceedings against Moutot; she was ordered to pay civil damages to the state, and to Deshoulières’ organizations.

Unlike Stern, Moutot has already been convicted of “public insult” by a French court and is being targeted for a second time. In May 2026, after three years of legal proceedings, Moutot was found guilty of “transphobia” for saying that men have penises. The proceedings were instigated by Mousse and STOP Homophobie, and Deshoulières served as the prosecuting attorney.

Moutot made the statement during an October 2022 episode of the popular talk show Quelle Époque!, where she had been invited as a guest to debate a trans-identified male named Nicolas “Marie” Cau, the mayor of Tilloy-lez-Marchiennes. While discussing the issue of men who claim to be transgender women, Moutot stated, “As women, we are obliged to be wary of people with penises.”

In its ruling, the court argued that Moutot had reduced “transgender women” to “their male attribute.”

“By referring to them as ‘penis people’ whom ‘women’ are ‘forced to distrust’, the defendant first assigns transgender women to their penis, that is, to their male sexual attribute of birth, while denying their female gender identity since they are opposed to ‘women’, the defendant thus implicitly considering that transgender women are not women,” the verdict read.

“This statement, which in a generalizing and essentializing way denies the gender identity of those concerned and assigns them to a masculine sexual attribute by associating the latter with a state of danger for cisgender women, is outrageous towards transgender women because of their sex and their gender identity.”

During the debate, Quelle Époque! presenter Léa Salamé had asked Moutot whether she regarded the mayor as a woman, to which Moutot replied, “To me, Marie Cau is a man.” A statement released by Mousse accused Moutot of “violently attacking” Cau by calling him both a man, and a “transfeminine man.”

Incredibly Moutot was fined €1,000, to be paid to the state, as well as the payment of €500 in damages to each of the three trans activist associations who backed Cau’s legal complaint, and an additional €2,000 to cover the court costs, which had come from public funding.

In September 2022, Cau published an autobiography titled Madame Mayor (Madame le Maire) wherein he described his urge to wear women’s clothing, an activity which he says brings about the “height of happiness” for him.

“Once I was alone in the house, I put on my girl’s clothes. A feeling of happiness, of liberation. Dressed like this, I can talk about myself in feminine terms and I can breathe,” Cau wrote. “Finally. I am myself. Shortly after puberty, I would also wear make-up… It became a bit like a drug, an addiction, because it feels so good that I would try to find that pleasure again.”

Cau, backed by three trans activist organizations who are funded by taxpayers – Adheos, Mousse and SOS Homophobie – filed a criminal complaint against Moutot over her comments in February 2023. Attorney Étienne Deshoulières, who is behind the current litigation against Moutot and Stern, has represented all three activist organizations; and, while also representing Cau’s claim against Moutot, argued that her comments constituted “advocating violence against transgender individuals” — though the final ruling tossed out that claim, stating her remarks did not “incite the public, implicitly or explicitly, to violence, discrimination or hatred”.

Yet remarkably, French prosecutors have declined to take action after Moutot and Stern lodged their own formal complaints against trans activists who publicly called for them to be murdered.

Moutot, along with her colleague Marguerite Stern, have for years endured violent death threats. Since 2019, both women have been relentlessly harassed on social media, which escalated into the public sphere. Both women have been the target of “messages calling for us to ‘smash our heads off,’ slogans like ‘one TERF, one bullet’ or ‘transphobes to the fire’ chanted publicly,” and calls to “physically and violently oppose our entire existence.”

Moutot has documented public graffiti with her name, calling her a “danger” to society. Other threats published online urged people to “settle things with knives,” while still others encouraged supporters to “burn” and “smash” her.

That month, Moutot and Stern filed their first complaint — despite having had death threats hurled at them for years by that point. In the report, they emphasized that, during demonstrations in both Strasbourg and Paris on May 4, 5, and 6, activists had called them out by name, shouting for them to be executed with the following statements: “Dora Moutot to the bottom of the Rhine!”, “Transphobes to the fire and Stern in the middle!,” and “TERFs to the stake!”

On May 6, 2024, trans activists can be seen on a video recording chanting death threats at Moutot and Stern outside of Assas University in Paris where they had been invited to speak about a book they wrote together critical of gender identity ideology titled “Transmania.”

Demonstrators surrounded the entrance and shouted, “A TERF, a bullet, social justice,” at the two women as they were escorted by police. “They have no shame,” said Stern in footage depicting the scene. “How can they say that in front of police?” marveled Moutot.

However, despite being provided with video evidence, the prosecutor’s office dismissed the investigation in August 2025, claiming it was impossible for them to “identify the perpetrators of the acts.”

In October 2024, Stern and Moutot filed a new criminal complaint against the website Paris-luttes.info and against social media company X on charges of death threats and incitement to commit a crime.

On October 14, 2024, an opinion piece titled “Trans Ultra Violence” was published on the website Paris-luttes.info. The article was explicitly aimed at Moutot and Stern, and called for supporters to “smash their heads” in order for “their deadly ideas to disappear forever.”

“We are not opposing transphobes and fascists in the merry world of intellectual debate, nor are we trying to impose ourselves in the media: we are physically and violently opposing their entire existence, just as they oppose ours,” reads the article, There will be no possible reconciliation with fascists, and one day we will have to settle things. Fear must take root permanently in their camp and in their minds for their deadly ideas to disappear forever. This can only be achieved through force and violence, and therefore by smashing their heads. In this respect, a telescopic baton seems like a step in the right direction.”

The website deliberately omitted the author’s name, though the article states that he is a trans-identified male: “It’s not because we grew up as boys that we seek out and use violence. We are violent because we are women, and this experience fully justifies any violence we might perpetrate.”

Stern and Moutot have repeatedly had to cancel speaking events out of concern for their own safety due to the deluge of threats they received.

In April 2023, for instance, Stern had intended to speak at a symposium in Nantes. The event was unrelated to the issue of gender identity ideology, and instead focused on the plight of Afghan and Iranian women. However, the organizer, The Comité Laïcité République (CLR – Republic Secularism Committee), an organization dedicated to promoting secularism “as a force for reflection, dialogue, with a balanced tone,” issued a statement on April 5 explaining that the event had been postponed.

“Numerous threats inciting violence were made on social media, including the distribution of our poster announcing the event crossed out with a knife, with calls for counter-demonstrations due to the presence of Ms. Stern, an activist feminist, critic of transgender ideology,” read the CLR’s statement.

“This led the organizers to postpone this event for the sake of preserving the safety of the speakers, of all the participants, and to prevent the Château from suffering any damage. The Comité Laïcité République lodged a complaint and informed the Prefect of these threats.”

In September 2024, trans activists set off a bomb at a venue where Stern and Moutot were schedule to speak. The conference, titled Comment L’idéologie Transgenre Détruit des Vies? (How Transgender Ideology Destroys Lives), sought to discuss the harms of both medical transitioning and the aggression of trans activism. Vandalism on the front of the venue read “Dirty TERF,” the same acronym, and incitement to violence against women, used by Familles LGBT lawyer Deshoulières in the recent legal complaint against them.

This incident, in conjunction with the “Trans Ultra Violence” article, resulted in their decision to cancel a conference in Brussels the following month. The venue, Café Laïque, had in 2022 been host to a dangerous demonstration where trans activists hurled cattle feces to protest a talk critical of the concept of a “transgender child,” presented by child psychiatrist Caroline Eliacheff and professor Céline Masson.

On October 2, United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls published a statement expressing support for Moutot and condemning her recent conviction, which she is currently appealing.

““As women, saying that we need to exercise caution around men, particularly where there are reasons to fear for our safety, does not in itself constitute hate speech,” said UN official Reem Alsalem. “Such expression can be reasonable and legitimate in the context of women’s safety and the debate on women-only spaces. Women should not be sanctioned for expressing concerns about their own safety or that of other women and girls.”

““Protecting people from discrimination and violence is an important human rights obligation,” Alsalem added. “It must, however, remain compatible with freedom of opinion and expression, the equal participation of women in public debate and the right of all women to live free from violence and intimidation. Simply expressing views on sex, gender or the specific needs of women based on their sex should not constitute grounds for harassment, intimidation or sanction.”

The Special Rapporteur also highlighted the death threats that had been directed at Moutot.

“The apparent contrast between the use of criminal proceedings in response to Moutot’s public statements and the lack of effective outcomes in investigations into the threats against her raises concerns regarding equality before the law, due diligence and the right to an effective remedy,” Alsalem said. She urged French authorities to take appropriate steps to ensure Moutot’s safety, and to “guarantee that women can participate in public debate on sex and gender without violence, intimidation or disproportionate restrictions on their freedom of expression.”

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