I’m in France, in a big city and working in a big secondary school. I work in an international (anglophone) section though, so we have lot of bi / tri - cultural kids, and some woker-than-woke American teachers 🙄. We have at least a couple of kids in each year group who are trans and the whole issue of who’s bi / gay / trans / whatever is constantly discussed. My DS 13 in a regular secondary school here, he’s got various friends who say they are gay or bi (though they are not actually sleeping with anyone yet) but no trans kids in his school of several hundred afaik.
The french school approach is, I think, very different to the U.K. Using a different name in school, for example, isn’t allowed until the child’s psychologist recommends it (and this can take a long time) - even if both parents and child request it. Parents would always be informed if a child was presenting with significant psychological distress (and we haven’t had any trans kids who haven’t been pretty messed up in general). The link with autism is not made at all - France is decades behind the U.K. in autism diagnosis and treatment, though this is changing slowly. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, all our trans students are F to M.
Being a young girl in a french high school is hard work: the pressure to be feminine / sexy in how you dress is significant, and there are no uniforms here - so the kids adopt their own and interpret each other’s mercilessly especially girls (boys have different priorities in their clothing). If, as a girl, you are fat / spotty / frizzy haired / awkward, there is nowhere to hide. Appearance, is hugely important in french society in general (at least it is in my bourgeois and well to do city - it’s maybe different out in the sticks) and high school is no different - worse if anything.
My french colleagues mostly roll their eyes when they hear another of our students has declared themselves to be trans. I eat with the guidance / pastoral care staff most days (it’s not done by teachers here) and they are pretty hands-off - the whole thing is passed off to psychologists to treat and recommend treatment / action in school.
I don’t watch a whole lot of french media but I don’t get the impression it’s a big issue at all. France is not a woke culture, I think that’s safe to say. At the same time sex, sexuality and sexual attraction are not taboo subjects here, at all: they will be openly discussed at dinner 😂. I would speculate that this removes a lot of the « illicit attraction» or frisson that seems to drive adult M to F AGF trans.