#3 Mousse: EU Court of Justice landmark trans judgments explained

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Did you ever wonder why did you have to state being Mr. or Ms. when just buying a train ticket? 64 non-binary people from France changed the rules for all of us in the EU. In 2021, the applicants complained about the online ticketing system of the French railroad company SNCF and the requirement to pick either male or female for buying a train ticket. They argued that this policy was unfair and violated their data protection rights. The EU Court of Justice decided that it was not necessary to collect gender titles when selling a train ticket. The court ruled that only necessary data should be collected to avoid discrimination on grounds of gender identity. This judgment is huge in a number of ways.

[00:00:52]First, it is the first time that non-binary people brought a claim to a European court and won. This means non-binary people are protected by EU law. They don't have to hide and they do not have to conform to binary gender norms.

[00:01:09]Second, the judgment says no one can ask you to share your gender marker unless it's really important for them to know.

[00:01:18]And let's face it, most of the time it's not.

[00:01:21]Third, apart from data protection, EU rules protect all trans and non-binary people when they want to access goods and services. And this applies no matter whether they have undergone gender reassignment or not. For more information, check out our toolkit, the Trans Rights Revolution.