In January, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in case C-394/23, brought by the Association “Mousse”, that it is unlawful for a railway company to require customers to provide a gender marker when purchasing train tickets. The case was against the French state-owned railway company SNCF, which obliges passengers to choose between the civil titles “Mr” or “Ms,” without offering a third option. The CJEU found that such a requirement violates the GDPR principles of data minimisation and accuracy, since gender information is not necessary for the provision of the service. It also recognised that collecting this data creates a risk of discrimination on the basis of gender identity, breaching the fundamental EU principle of non-discrimination. In late July, the Council of State ruled that the SNCF will not be allowed to require customers to indicate their gender when purchasing tickets on its online platform. With the ruling, the Council of State aligned itself with the previous CJEU judgment, arguing that the practice conflicted with the principle of data minimization, a pillar of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and condemning the State to pay

€3,000 to the complainant.

In June, the Versailles Administrative Court of Appeal ruled that the city of Puteaux did not engage in discrimination based on gender identity during a school trip in which a 12-year-old trans boy was required to sleep in a girls’ dormitory. Despite his requests to be accommodated in accordance with his gender identity, the court found that the municipality had made reasonable efforts to find a solution but was ultimately unable to do so.

In March, the Paris Administrative Court annulled a February order by the Paris police chief to transfer a trans asylum seeker to Spanish authorities. The court ruled that transferring the person, who had begun transitioning in France, would amount to “inhuman and degrading treatment.” The police chief’s decision had been made under the Dublin III Regulation, which prevents refugees from seeking asylum in multiple EU countries.

In January, the Paris Criminal Court delivered its verdict in the trial of five individuals accused of incitement to hatred and homophobic threats against singer Bilal Hassani. Four of the defendants were convicted, with one receiving a €3,000 fine for public incitement to hatred or violence on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The case stemmed from the backlash following the announcement of a concert by Hassani in the Basilica of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains, a deconsecrated church. The announcement triggered a wave of hostile online comments, including explicit calls for violence against Hassani.

In February, the Bordeaux Court of Appeal upheld the conviction of a far-right activist, for homophobic insults during the 2022 Bordeaux Pride. Previously convicted in May 2024, he was fined €1,000 and ordered to compensate the associations Mousse and STOP Homophobia for disrupting the procession, displaying a banner hostile to LGBTI people, and chanting homophobic slogans.

In May, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced seven people to fines and suspended prison terms for sending homophobic and anti-Semitic hate messages to Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Jolly had filed a complaint after being targeted with threats and insults on social media.

In May, an investigation was opened in Paris following a complaint by a leader of the women’s section of the Stade Français rugby club against the club’s sporting director. The complaint accused him of moral harassment and lesbophobic remarks. The Paris public prosecutor’s office confirmed that the complaint had been entrusted to the Brigade for the Repression of Crimes against Persons (BRDP). The club’s sporting director faced internal disciplinary action, including suspension from his role with the women’s team and a formal reprimand.

In June, a 21-year-old soldier was sentenced by the Tulle Criminal Court to one year of probationary prison for publishing a series of online messages promoting extreme violence against ethnic minorities and LGBTI people.

In 2025, official data indicated that anti-LGBTI violence and discrimination remained present in France. A study published by the Observatoire des inégalités reported more than 3,000 anti-LGBTI crimes and offences in 2024, compared with around one third of that number in 2016. According to the study, people under the age of 29 accounted for half of recorded victims and men for nearly three-quarters. Data released in May by the Departmental Statistical Service for Internal Security (SSMSI) recorded 4,800 anti-LGBTI offences in 2024, representing a 5% increase compared with 2023. The recorded offences included physical violence, threats, insults and entrapments linked to contacts initiated through dating applications.

Several cases of bias-motivated assaults were reported during the year. In January, a boy under 15 was assaulted in Harfleur (Seine-Maritime) in an attack that involved an attempted aggravated rape and the theft of his mobile phone. The case remained under investigation at the end of the year and no judicial outcome has been reported. In the same month, a 19-year-old man was assaulted in Caen by a group of around 15 individuals, while a 22-year-old man was attacked on a bus in Marseille by three individuals who directed homophobic insults, spat on him and threatened him with a knife — the main suspect was charged with death threats and public insults motivated by bias against sexual orientation. In February, a 20-year-old man was assaulted in Ambarès-et-Lagrave (Gironde) by seven teenagers who beat him while directing verbal abuse linked to his sexual orientation. In April, a man from Arras was verbally harassed and spat on in Béthune before being physically assaulted in a nearby parking area. In the same month, two trans teenagers were attacked in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) by a group of minors who punched and kicked them while shouting transphobic insults. In June, a worker was assaulted at his home in Chantilly (Oise) by two colleagues who beat and humiliated him in acts reported as motivated by his sexual orientation. In July, a 21-year-old man was assaulted in Le Mans shortly after the city’s Pride march. In September, the director of a primary school in Moussages, in the Cantal department, died by suicide after being subjected to persistent lesbophobic harassment not receiving adequate institutional support.

A number of cases also involved entrapments arranged through dating apps. In February, an LGBTI activist in Nice was lured and assaulted in what investigators described as a homophobic ambush. In March, in Bordeaux, a man was contacted via a dating site, confronted by a minor and two accomplices and forced to withdraw €1,000. At the end of March in Dijon, three men were attacked in separate incidents after being approached in a known cruising location and were beaten and robbed.

Several court decisions during the year concerned incidents involving similar methods. In January, the Le Havre Criminal Court sentenced three men aged 19 to 21 to prison terms ranging from one to three years for an assault committed in December 2023 against a young man targeted because of his sexual orientation. In February, the Lille Children’s Court sentenced a teenager to 11 years’ imprisonment for three  attempted  murders  committed  in  August 2020, two of which were considered to have a homophobic motive. In March, the Charente Juvenile Court sentenced a man to 18 months’ imprisonment for the extortion of a homosexual man whom he had lured to a meeting in 2023, where the victim was beaten, placed in a car trunk, taken to a field and robbed. In the same month, in Martinique, an assize court opened the first trial for assault and battery  causing  permanent  disability,  sentencing a defendant to 13 years’ imprisonment for armed robbery accompanied by homophobic aggravating circumstances. In May, two men aged 19 and 20 were convicted for luring and assaulting a gay man in Étaples via a false meeting arranged on Snapchat. The Créteil Criminal Court sentenced two men aged 21 for attacking two gay men after arranging a meeting with the intention of stealing their cars. In June, the Nîmes Criminal Court convicted two men aged 18 and 19 for luring victims through a dating application using false profiles and ambushing them at their homes. In July, four individuals were arrested in Malesherbois (Loiret) in connection with a series of attacks in which victims were directed to buildings where they were beaten, threatened with a weapon and forced to hand over money or make bank transfers. In October, the Bobigny Juvenile Court found five teenagers guilty of violence and attempted theft — with the aggravating circumstance linked to sexual orientation — after they used the Grindr app to arrange meetings with men who were then assaulted and robbed. A further hearing to determine sentencing was scheduled for January 2026, and the court ordered educational measures and compensation for the victims. In December, the Essonne assize court sentenced a 28-year-old man to eight years’ imprisonment for a series of armed extortions committed in Paris in 2022 against men contacted through dating applications and lured to a cellar where they were threatened with weapons and robbed; on appeal he acknowledged the homophobic insults accompanying the attacks.

In February, the Official Gazette published an update to the National Education curriculum, strengthening comprehensive sexuality education to better support students in their personal and relational development. The program, mandatory since 2001 but previously little applied, is structured around current issues and covers sexual orientation, gender identity, and related discrimination.

In March, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and racist graffiti, including Nazi symbols, were found on the facade of Merleau-Ponty High School in Rochefort (Charente-Maritime). Some of the inscriptions contained explicit calls for violence. Local authorities and civil society condemned the incident, with the mayor stressing that hate and racism have no place in schools or in the country, and anti-discrimination activists linking the episode to broader patterns of bias-motivated hostility.

In June, in the Landes, a sports educator was suspended from all management duties for six months following a report to the departmental youth and sports service. The report cited repeated harassment and homophobic remarks directed at both athletes and colleagues.

In February, a coalition of LGBTI rights associations sent a letter to the Ministries of Sport, Interior, and Justice, highlighting a rise in homophobic acts and chants being recorded during championship matches.

In March the Stop Homophobié association reported that they would submit a complaint against Vincent Labrune, president of the Professional Football League (LFP), following an Instagram post that referenced a homophobic chant by supporters of Saint-Étienne.

In April, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced far-right YouTuber Grégory Toussaint for public insult and incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The conviction followed the broadcast of two videos which falsely accused LGBTI people of indoctrinating children, equating them with paedophiles, and advocated for public assaults.

In May, the football club FC Nantes announced that it will financially sanction its player Mostafa Mohamed for refusing to play in a match scheduled on IDAHOBIT. The club noted that Mohamed had previously refused to participate in similar matches on the same day during the past two seasons, claiming that his faith and origins influenced his choice.

In May, several racist and homophobic tags were discovered on the campus of the University of Pau and Pays de l’Adour (UPPA). The university’s management condemned the messages as contrary to the institution’s values of equality and respect and announced that it would file a complaint.

In June, the Professional Football League (LFP) announced sanctions against one player for uttering a homophobic insult during a halftime on IDAHOBIT, while two other sanctions were awarded to players refusing to participate in the matchday’s anti-LGBTI-phobia initiative.

In late June, Inter-LGBT faced the suspension of regional subsidies from Île-de-France. Valérie Pécresse, President of the Regional Council, confirmed that the association would not receive the €25,000 grant initially allocated for 2023. The decision followed controversy over a poster produced for the 2025 Pride March. The poster depicts a figure with a Celtic cross tattoo, a symbol associated with the far right, being held by other march participants by the tie and arm. Pécresse criticised the image as an incitement to violence, stating that it appeared to show “the corpse of a white man hanging by his tie,” while the organisers rejected that interpretation and presented the imagery as anti-extremist.

In June, Yohan Pawer, founder of the masculinist and homonationalist group Eros, announced that his organisation would participate in the Paris Pride March. In reaction, LGBTI organisations and public figures issued a public statement of condemnation and mobilsed against the participation of the organisation in the march. Despite this, the Préfecture de Police — acting under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior — overruled the organisers and required that Eros be allowed to participate, invoking principles of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.

In January and again in April, the rainbow-coloured staircase at the University of Rennes 2 was vandalised. The staircase, inaugurated in 2019 as a symbol of tolerance, was painted over in blue, white, and red and defaced with a homophobic insult. In May, a similar episode targeted the rainbow-colored stairs leading to Avenue de Verdun, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, with Mayor Alexandra Cordebard from the Socialist Party denouncing the act as a “homophobic act”.

In January, a 22-year-old man was arrested in Pau for assaulting a passerby wearing a rainbow pin. The aggressor initially questioned the victim about the meaning of the badge and, believing it signalled support for an anti-fascist cause, struck them multiple times.

In April, balloons filled with white paint were thrown against the windows of the LGBTI Iskis center in Rennes, and an insulting tag was painted on one of the walls.

In August, a Pride banner displayed on the façade of the Hôtel de Région in Rennes was deliberately vandalised. Authorities strongly condemned the act, which comes amid a surge in attacks targeting locations and symbols associated with the LGBTI community in the Breton capital.

In January, the Regional Order of Physicians in Nouvelle-Aquitaine sanctioned a gynecologist from Pau for refusing to treat a trans patient in August 2023. The case was decided in the first instance by the disciplinary chamber which stressed that, under the Public Health Code, “no person can be discriminated against in access to prevention or care.” In December, he was convicted by the Pau Criminal Court due to the fact that, following his refusal to treat the victim due to their gender identity, he posted a series of transphobic remarks online. As part of the proceedings he was acquitted of the charge of discriminatory refusal of care but sentenced to a €1,000 suspended fine for sexist contempt.

In July, the French National Authority for Health (HAS) published its first national recommendations on the medical care of trans adults. The report formally recognises the right to self-determination and for the first time, the HAS clearly stated that being trans is not a pathology, but a legitimate personal identity. The recommendations specify that access to hormonal treatments or surgical interventions should no longer require a psychiatric diagnosis, and emphasise flexible psychological support tailored to the needs of each individual.

In August, the French Blood Establishment (Établissement français du sang, EFS) confirmed that it had begun deleting references to “homosexual relationships” from its donor databases, following concerns that the continued storage of such data violated data protection principles. The decision, prompted by a petition from the association TOUS. TES, marked the removal of a former exclusion criterion for blood donation that had remained in EFS records despite the full abolition of sexual-orientation-based restrictions in 2022.

In 2024, data from the Ministry of National Education highlighted that serious incidents in French schools — including insults, physical assaults, harassment, and homophobic or racist attacks — increased. The annual SIVIS survey, conducted by the Direction de l’évaluation, de la prospective et de la performance (Depp), recorded 16 serious incidents per 1,000 students in middle and high schools, compared to 14 the previous year. This trend has been steadily rising since 2018-2019, when 12 incidents per 1,000 students were reported.

In May, France joined 15 other EU member states in a declaration urging Hungary to revise legislative and constitutional amendments adopted in March and April 2025, which could impose fines on participants and organisers of LGBTI events, authorise the use of facial recognition software at such gatherings, and potentially allow bans on them. The declaration was initiated by the Netherlands and co-signed by Finland, Germany, France, Austria, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

In May, the Senate adopted a bill aimed at rehabilitating people convicted under France’s former laws criminalising homosexuality. The text, introduced by Socialist Senator Hussein Bourgi and approved unanimously, acknowledges that France pursued discriminatory policies against homosexual people between 1942 and 1982 — the year homosexuality was fully decriminalised. The bill specifically targets two former provisions of the criminal code: one that imposed a higher age of consent for same-sex relations, and another that increased penalties for “public indecency” when committed by two people of the same sex. However, the Senate rejected the compensation mechanism that had been inserted in the draft law during its first reading and approved by the National Assembly. That mechanism proposed financial reparations for those wrongly convicted: a flat €10,000 payment plus €150 for each day spent in detention. Senate right-wing and centrist groups, who hold the majority, opposed reinstating this component, arguing that it lacked legal clarity and could lead to significant litigation risks.

In June, the French Equality Body published a new framework decision on matters relating to gender identity. This text updates and expands the previous framework decision of 2020, addressing the difficulties trans people face in multiple areas: civil status and filiation, health and social protection, education, employment, sports participation, access to goods and services, police ethics, and deprivation of liberty. It also considers the specific situations of trans foreign nationals.

In June, a bill was tabled in the Senate to strengthen the legal framework against LGBTIphobic violence and facilitate the work of LGBTI advocacy associations. The text aims to address gaps identified following a priority constitutional question (QPC) filed by STOP Homophobie by providing that associations fighting LGBTIphobia could join proceedings as civil parties in cases of rape, sequestration, theft, extortion or blackmail. Another key measure aims to reinforce the ban on conversion therapies by extending criminal liability to anyone offering conversion practices, regardless of professional status. Finally, the proposal introduces “gender expression” as an autonomous ground of protection in anti-discrimination and hate speech law, attempting to align French law with recommendations from the Council of Europe and the European Commission.

In late May, the Strasbourg Court of First Instance ruled in favor of a 31-year-old trans man against the Caisse primaire d’assurance maladie (CPAM) du Bas-Rhin, which had refused to cover his mastectomy. The court found this refusal discriminatory and in violation of Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). CPAM was ordered to reimburse the cost of the surgery and to pay €3,000 in damages.

In June, the CPAM of Seine-Saint-Denis was condemned for refusing to cover medical care for two young men undergoing transitions. The court in Bobigny ruled that the CPAM had relied on an outdated 1989 protocol, which has since been abolished. It ordered both the local CPAM and the national health insurance fund (CNAM) to jointly pay €3,000 in damages to each plaintiff in recognition of the harm they suffered.