The controversy comes as Paris prepares to host the Olympics from July 26 to August 11.

French advertising firm JCDecaux late Wednesday told AFP the posters had been removed, and apologised to people who could have been hurt by them.

The poster promoted a book titled “Transmania” that describes itself as “an investigation into the extremes of transgender ideology” and the “harmful political project” behind it.

Kam Hugh, a drag queen who has appeared on French television, first alerted the mayor’s office to the existence of the “openly transphobic” poster on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday night.

La transphobie est un délit. La haine de l'autre n'a pas sa place dans notre ville.

Paris n'est pas la vitrine de cette haine crasse.

Je vais saisir @JCDecaux_France pour demander le retrait de cette publicité. https://t.co/qTSrimyBpb

— Emmanuel Grégoire (@egregoire) April 17, 2024

The account of the capital’s Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo responded, asking about the poster’s location.

In a letter to JCDecaux seen by AFP, first deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire asked the advertising firm to remove the series.

“Transphobia is an offence. Hate has no place in our city,” he wrote on X.

Dora Moutot, one of the book’s authors, said the book was not transphobic and denounced “censorship based on assumptions rather than an analysis of the contents” of the book.

She said she and co-author Marguerite Stern had interviewed trans people for it.

“It is a sourced investigation into puberty blockers and certain actors who push for gender transitions and make a profit from it,” she wrote on X.

She slammed what she called a “regression of public discourse and debate”, but thanked Hugh for the free advertising.