Recently, the presidential couple has taken a stand against the spread of rumors, and the current court case began with a police report from Brigitte Macron last year.
Now, the eight men and two women will be heard in a court in Paris on Monday and Tuesday.
One of the defendants is Aurelien Poirson-Atlan, known on social media as "Zoé Sagan", a publisher often associated with conspiracy theories.
According to the prosecutor, several have made themselves guilty of "malicious comments about Brigitte Macron's gender and sexuality, as well as the age difference with her husband... where she is compared to a pedophile", as Le Monde has reported.
Sued American podcaster
Across the Atlantic, another case is underway, where the Macron couple has taken the ultra-conservative American podcaster and activist Candace Owens to court for defamation. This is after Owens refused to retract statements that Brigitte Macron was previously a man.
The couple has said they are prepared to submit "scientific evidence" to the American court that the mother of three, Brigitte Macron, was born a woman.
In the summer, a similar case was settled in France, when two women were acquitted in an appeals court after previously being convicted of defamation.
The persistent rumor about the president's wife's gender has been circulating on the internet for several years, fueled by conspiracy theorists on the right.
Said to be the same person
The theory is said to have been launched in a YouTube video in 2021 by the two previously convicted women, who have connections to the anti-vaccination movement, and went viral in connection with the French presidential election the following year.
The claim is that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman, who was previously a man named Jean-Michel, which is the name of her brother. Thus, the women also meant that Brigitte Macron and her brother are actually the same person.
Similar conspiracy theories have circulated around several women in positions of power, such as Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, and New Zealand's former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The fact that the French president's wife has chosen to fight so hard to clear her name has led to criticism from parts of the French trans movement which argues that the actions fuel the stigma against trans people that exists in France.
Corrected: In an earlier version of the text, an incorrect number of people to be tried on Monday was stated.
