IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER

U.K. Transgender Man Who Gave Birth Not Allowed to Register as Father: Court

Freddy McConnell was challenging a U.K. law that says those who give birth must be recognized as “mothers.”

The U.K.’s high court ruled that a transgender man who gave birth cannot be recognized as the father, instead of mother, of the child on a birth certificate. The father, Freddy McConnell, responded to the ruling in a tweet, writing, “I’m saddened by the court’s decision not to allow trans men to be recorded as father or parent on their children’s birth certificates. I fear this decision has distressing implications for many kinds of families.”

McConnell, who was born female, was legally recognized as male when he gave birth in 2018, according to the BBC. McConnell took legal action against the U.K. law requiring people who give birth to be registered as mothers. The president of the high court’s family division, Andrew McFarlane, ruled that a “mother” refers to someone who gave birth, regardless of gender. “Being a ‘mother,’ whilst hitherto always associated with being female, is the status afforded to a person who undergoes the physical and biological process of carrying a pregnancy and giving birth,” said McFarlane. McConnell said that he would be appealing the decision.