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Original poster

In France, Dora Moutot convicted of transphobia for identifying a TW as male when asked.

31 replies

Emilesgran · 21/05/2026 05:48

While we await the full implementation of the FWS judgment in the UK, Australia and now France show that the battle is far from over.

In 2021, Dora Moutot was taking part in a televised debate along with a transidentifying male who was being celebrated for becoming the first TW mayor in France. She was asked if she saw Marie Cau, the TW as a man or a woman, and basically told the truth.

She was taken to court for hate speech for this plus another comment about women needing to be careful around all “people with penises” - and has just lost the case.

https://twitter.com/doramoutot/status/2057180176484647069?s=20

Seeing how it’s reported in the French media (barely at all, and that, unsympathetically) I’m not sure what happens next in France, and the EU more generally. The Minister for equality between men and women spoke against… Dora Moutot.

This is her own description of the events.
https://unherd.com/2023/12/french-feminism-is-being-corrupted/

And a link to the original debate, in French:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8elggw

I’m not sure whether she can appeal, but I think this is worrying. There is a level of capture in the French media that most people are completely unaware of. Like Australia, it’s still very much at the “Be Kind” level of debate, but this judgment will have a chilling effect and make any future discussion all the more difficult.

I don’t even know what can be done now - how can anyone dare tell the truth in the French media now, or indeed in a discussion at work or similar?

Dora Moutot (@doramoutot) on X

Dear English Followers: on May 20, 2026, I learned that I had been convicted by French court for stating: “As women, we are compelled to be wary of people with penises.”This conviction marks a deeply troubling turning point for freedom of expression in...

https://x.com/doramoutot/status/2057180176484647069?s=20

OP posts:
PaleBlueMoonlight · 21/05/2026 07:19

Utterly depressing.

AlexandraLeaving · 21/05/2026 06:51

Emilesgran · 21/05/2026 06:15

Yes, in my experience for a country that has the revolution at the core of its identity, France can be surprisingly conservative when it comes to women’s rights.

What shocked me is that she was explicitly asked the question, in a debate: clearly she was meant to lie. I don’t understand why that isn’t a bigger issue. In hindsight, it seems like Maya Forstatter’s approach of using freedom of expression and getting clarification on the right to believe that TW are not women may have been more brilliant than many people realise.

Revolution, yes. But it was a men’s revolution that resulted in the Napoleonic Code that, in 1804, provided that women were the property of and under the control of either their father or their husband.

Thank you for posting the story. Very depressing.

JellySaurus · 21/05/2026 06:23

Vive lae France: Constrainte, Inégalité, mais toujours Fraternité - pour les mecs.

🙄

TheywontletmehavethenameIwant · 21/05/2026 06:22

The panel she described being on sounded more like the experience of someone who found themselves in front of the revolutionary committee. Back in the day she definitely would have been sent to the guillotine.

Original poster
Emilesgran · 21/05/2026 06:15

Yes, in my experience for a country that has the revolution at the core of its identity, France can be surprisingly conservative when it comes to women’s rights.

What shocked me is that she was explicitly asked the question, in a debate: clearly she was meant to lie. I don’t understand why that isn’t a bigger issue. In hindsight, it seems like Maya Forstatter’s approach of using freedom of expression and getting clarification on the right to believe that TW are not women may have been more brilliant than many people realise.

OP posts:
TheywontletmehavethenameIwant · 21/05/2026 06:09

Thanks for the link.
Shocking but not surprising, it's the hill the lefties are all prepared to die on. I think France has always been a patriarchy, and this is definitely a man's rights movement, so a women being punished for telling the truth fits right in.
I hope she appeals, if it's possible, but as so many countries have brought out hate speech laws and as men hate women telling them no, she may well not have the right to appeal.