"A case of unashamed transphobia at work": at "20 Minutes", the general manager's comments towards a union representative do not go down well

Is telling a transgender employee "look at you, you honestly look like a clown" during a recorded union meeting transphobic or not? While the answer may seem simple, the question has been causing the management of the online media outlet 20 Minutes to agonize for nearly two weeks.

The origins of this incident occurred on Friday, May 23, during a negotiation meeting between union representatives—there are three of them at 20 Minutes —and management. During this meeting, where several topics were discussed, the discussion became tense over one specific point: an agreement on teleworking. As tensions rose between Lise, the company's CGT representative, who blamed management for halting negotiations on the issue, and CEO Ronan Dubois, who passed the buck to the CEO, the latter began to mimic the trans journalist. "As Lise resumed speaking, the CEO allowed himself to imitate her in an effeminate voice, adopting a posture worthy of the worst clichés," wrote the SNJ-CGT and SNME-CFDT a few days later in a press release denouncing "humiliating and discriminatory behavior, constituting transphobia." "It was very visually shocking, I was stunned. He's our CEO after all..." Hakima, a CFDT representative, told Libération today.

Like Hakima, Lise remains speechless. “I say: ‘Are we at the theater? Are we at the circus? What is this?’”