Maud Marin
French lawyer and author

Maud Marin (French pronunciation: [mod maʀɛ̃]) or Maud Planchard (28 June 1945 - 21 June 2025) was a French lawyer and author and the world's first, known transsexual lawyer.

Early life

Marin was born Jean Pascal Henri Planchard[1] on (1945-06-28)June 28, 1945 at Rouen in Normandy[citation needed] and assigned male at birth.[2][1][3]

She studied law and political science at the Sorbonne.[4] In 1968, when she told her parents that she intended to transition, they threw her out.[4] In order to survive, Marin turned to prostitution, first in Paris in the Bois de Boulogne, then later in London.[3][4] She changed her name from Jean Planchard to Maud Marin in May 1968.[2] In 1974, when she was 29, Marin underwent vaginoplasty.[5] She was recognised by the state as a transsexual.[4] However, she still had to prostitute herself, under the aegis of the gang Zemour Brothers [fr].[3]

Career

Marin also worked, for a time, at PT&T, the French government agency responsible for postal and telecom services as a trainee postal inspector.[2]

With the support of the Minister for Social Affairs and Health, Simone Veil, Marin was able to get a certificate of aptitude for the legal profession.[4] As a result, Marin became the world's first transsexual lawyer[3][6] in 1980.[2] She practised at the Paris Bar [fr] from 1981 to 1985, when she was disbarred for "conspicuous difference".[4] In her early practice, she helped other French prostitutes.

In the late 1980s, Marin published two autobiographical books. The first book, Angel's Leap (Le Saut de l'ange) (1987),[1] dealt with her transsexual identity, the second, Sad Pleasures (Tristes Plaisirs (1989), her experience of prostitution. The books brought her notoriety and shocked her colleagues at the Paris Bar. As a result, Marin found it difficult to obtain a position in chambers.

Instead, Marin practised at the Seine-Saint-Denis Bar at Bobigny for several years under the name of Maud Planchard, in a circuit that saw a lot of violent crime cases.[3] In 1991, Marin published the book The Quarter of the Damned (Le Quartier des Maudites) about female prisons.[7]

In 1996, Marin published a new book, Have Pity on Victims (Pitié pour les victimes), in which she criticised the justice system for being more concerned with pursuing delinquents than with victim suffering. In the book, she also discussed the 1995 terrorist Paris RER station bombing, in which she alleged that the bomb was created in Seine-Saint-Denis and not in Algeria as the police were claiming. Marin's book was labelled "dangerous" by the government[3] and resulted in Marin being disbarred[3][5] in 1999.[4]

Jean-Marie Le Pen, her editor[citation needed] and the head of French National Front, tried to help Marin get re-admitted to the bar.[5] However, party lawyer, Wallerand de Saint-Just, who considered the National Front to be defenders of family values, refused his support.[3][8]

Later life

In 2002, Marin was forced, for financial reasons, to leave Paris. She moved to her mother's house in Cahors. In 2006, she was forced to seek food assistance from the charity Restaurants du Cœur.[2]

Marin attempted to become a magistrate on the basis that she was over fifty and had at least 15 years of experience in the judicial or administrative domain. However, her request to take the entrance exam was rejected by the Minister for Justice who refused to recognise her work experience at PT&T under her dead name.[2] Marin appealed to the Administrative Tribunal in Paris[2] but the judge also refused to recognise any experience under the name of Jean Planchard.[2][3]

Marin lived the remainder of her life in the French countryside, in Lot, "with her books and her memories".[3]

Death

Maud Marin died in June 2025[9] and was buried in Cahors.

Works

  • Marin, Maud; Cuny, Marie-Thérèse (1987). Le Saut de l'ange. Paris: Fixot. ISBN 978-2738203663. BNF: 34967760.
  • Maud Marin; Marie-Thérèse Cuny (1989). Tristes plaisirs. Paris: Fixot. ISBN 2-87645-048-8. BNF: 36635058.
  • Maud Marin; Marie-Thérèse Cuny (1991). Le Quartier des maudites. Document. Paris: Fixot. ISBN 978-2876450998.
  • Maud Marin; Philippe Delannoy (1996). Pitié pour les victimes: document. Paris: Fixot. ISBN 2-87645-278-2. BNF: 36689794.
  • Maud Marin (1999). Un procès en banlieue. Saint-Brieuc: Les Presses bretonnes. ISBN 2-85615-011-X. BNF: 37083200.
  • Maud Marin (2001). Que messieurs les assassins commencent !. Paris: Objectif France. ISBN 2-913744-08-7. BNF: 37706099.

Critical reception

Boisclair considered Marin autobiography's Angel's Leap (Le Saut de l'ange) as one of a number of useful texts on intersexuality. Of the book, Boisclair wrote, "From a political standpoint, this text is part of an affirmative action movement, and as such, it holds undeniable importance for the intersex community".[1]

Of her book in The Quarter of the Damned (Le Quartier des Maudites), Le Nouvel Obs wrote "she gives voice to women in prison in a raw, humorous, and warm language. The language of the damned with tender hearts."[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Boisclair, Isabelle (2008). "Le personnage intersexué : voie de renouvellement de l'imaginaire des sexes/genres?" [Intersex: a path to reconsidering sex and gender]. Nouvelles Questions Féministes (in French). 27 (1): 63–78. doi:10.3917/nqf.271.0063. Le récit autobiographique retrace le parcours de Maud Marin (née Jean Pascal Henri Marin en 1945) jusqu'à ses 40 ans, alors qu'elle peine à trouver un partenaire amoureux, en passant par son opération transsexuelle, en 1974, à l'âge de 29 ans. [The autobiographical account traces the journey of Maud Marin (born Jean Pascal Henri Marin in 1945) up to the age of 40, when she struggled to find a romantic partner, through her transsexual operation in 1974, at the age of 29.]
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Garcia, Jean-Luc (2006-09-05). "Maud Marin, déchue, plaide sa cause à Paris" [Maud Marin, disgraced, pleads her case in Paris]. La Dépêche du Midi (in French).
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bourgeois, Marie-pierre (2016-04-07). "Jean-Marie Le Pen and Homosexuals: a Long-Term Issue". Rose Marine (in French). Editions du moment. ISBN 978-2-35417-493-4.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Garcia, Jean-Luc (2006-01-02). "Maud Marin, avocate bannie, plaide pour son propre avenir" [Maud Marin, disbarred lawyer, pleads for her own future]. La Dépêche du Midi (in French). Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Ritot, Louis (2016-03-31). "Maud Marin, l'amie transsexuelle de Jean-Marie Le Pen" [Maud Marin, Jean-Marie Le Pen's transgender friend]. Closer magazine (in French). Retrieved 18 November 2025. [She underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1974... As a lawyer, Maud Marin never imagined that publishing her book, *Pity for the Victims *, in 1996, in which she recounts the bombing at the Saint-Michel RER station, would lead to her being disbarred...Protective and benevolent to the end, Jean-Marie Le Pen even used his contacts to try to get Maud Marin reinstated to the bar, but in vain.]
  6. ^ "Ces stars ont changé de sexe : les 100 transsexuels et transgenres les plus influents". www.linternaute.com (in French). 2018-07-18. Retrieved 2025-11-19. [Frenchwoman Maud Marin (born Jean Planchard), the world's first transgender lawyer, fighting for the right to practice]
  7. ^ a b Rousseau, Nita (1991-02-28). "Maud Marin, prisons de femmes" [Maud Marin, women's prisons] (PDF) (in French). Le Nouvel Observateur. p. 31.
  8. ^ "Maud Marin, l'amie trans de Le Pen" [Maud Marin, Le Pen's trans friend]. L'Obs magazine. 31 March 2016. p. 16. Retrieved 21 Nov 2025.
  9. ^ "Cahors. Maud Marin, une figure disparaît" [Maud Marin, a prominent figure, disappears]. La Depeche. 2 July 2025. Archived from the original on 20 Nov 2025.
  • "Maud Marin transsexuelle". segment on the TV show "Reporters" via YouTube.
  • Photo of Maud Marin (1987) by Jacques Lange
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