Trans Man Breaks Silence Over Fight To Be Legally Recognised As His Child’s Father
Trans man Freddy McConnell, who is legally male, decided that the best route to starting a family was for him to become pregnant, and assumed that he’d be registered as his child’s father, considering the fact that he is transgender would remain “a personal matter”.
But after reading a discussion in a Facebook group, Freddy realised he’d been horribly wrong: trans men in the UK who give birth are forced to be named “mother” on their child’s birth certificate.
McConnell eventually found a lawyer specialising in LGBT+ family law who would fight, pro bono, for him to be registered as his child’s father or parent. He thought, and his lawyer agreed, that the issue was simply an oversight; a gap in the law, which had been formed before there was widespread awareness of trans parents.
But now, after four years of court fights, Freddy ultimately lost his case at the Court of Appeal earlier this year. Last month, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal of that ruling – leaving him without further legal options in the UK.
Now, for the first time, he’s telling his side of what he calls the government’s “dystopian, lazy and incoherent” approach to trans parents.
“We thought we would just take this to the government and say, maybe you want to fix this or clarify this?” Freddy recalls on his YouTube channel. “We felt really positive about it. This was 2016, and the whole transphobic moral panic in the UK was much calmer. It was fringe. It hadn’t totally taken over the public discourse about trans people in the media.”
The case wasn’t meant to be radical or revolutionary. Freddy says he thought they were just pointing out an inconsistency in the law.
“This isn’t about a man giving birth and whether he is a mother or a father,” Freddy says. “This is about how the law in the UK ignores trans parents, on every level, not just ignores but also actively discriminates against us – by giving us full legal recognition, and then taking it away at the point when we become parents.”
Not just the law, but also the government’s lawyers – who Freddy says made “queerphobic” arguments in court.
“Basically, the court was just full of old, white, cis men,” he says. “And they just really didn’t get it. They don’t understand. They don’t see trans people as full people.
“The idea that any citizen can go to court and get a fair hearing isn’t true, especially if you’re part of a minority that is widely misunderstood.”
But Freddy McConnell isn’t giving up: he made a promise to his child before they were born that he would fight to get them accurate documents. Having him listed as their mother is “confusing, and could put them into danger”, Freddy says.
“Their documents are wrong, inaccurate and confusing,” he continues. “It would require them to go into detail about their parents medical history if they had to produce their birth certificate for a high-level job… or at a criminal records check.
“Having to produce his birth certificate would out him as having a queer family, rather than being something he can choose to disclose, as and when is safe and appropriate.”
Freddy will now take his case to the European Court of Human Rights. It will be six or 12 months before he knows if the ECHR has accepted their application, and probably several more years for the case to be heard – but the ECHR is already hearing several similar cases, including ones from Russia, Germany and France, as ‘Yahoo! News’ reports.
“So we’re definitely not alone in fighting this battle,” he says, adding that it’s “not just for my child, but for hundreds of families around the UK that are in this position”.
“If this could lead to a solution not just for trans families but actually for LGBTQ families, where we are all equal under the system of birth registration, and that there isn’t a birth certificate with ‘mother’ and ‘father’ just for cis straight couples… that would be great.”
Freddy McConnell points to how long it takes to effect change through the courts, and how slowly other trans rights have been gained – the passage of the Gender Recognition Act, which became law in 2004, began with court appeals for legal recognition in the 1980s.
“My case might be the first, and it might fail,” Freddy says. “It certainly will not be the last.”
Read related myGwork articles here:
Transgender Man Who Gave Birth Loses Court Battle To Be Registered As The Father
Trans Man Fights to Be Listed As Father On Baby’s Birth Certificate
British Newspapers Succeed in Lifting Anonymity Order Protecting Trans Father
Trans Woman Told She Has To Adopt Her Own Child To Be Recognised As The Mother
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