Transgender Man Petitions To Be Listed As Father After Birthing Child

In the U.K., a transgender man is requesting to be listed as his child’s father after delivering the child himself. The man gave birth to the child, which, under current laws, means he will be listed as the child’s mother on the birth certificate, even though he had legally transitioned into a man prior to the delivery.

According to the BBC, the transgender man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has taken the issue to the High Court in an effort to have himself listed as the father on the birth certificate. If this happens, the man’s child will be the first child born in England and Wales without a mother listed on the birth certificate.

It sets an interesting precedent, legally. This is a man who should be listed as the child’s father, but who is, also legally, the person who gave birth to the child and can be considered the birth mother according to English and Wales law. Depending on which law you look at, the person is considered differently.

In the U.K., it is a legal requirement to list the person delivering a child to be listed as the birth mother, regardless of whether they are legally considered a man or woman. The man is now challenging this law after a registrar told the man he could not be listed as the child’s father on the birth certificate.

As a result of this, the man is now “accusing the body set up to administer statutory provisions relating to the registration of births and deaths of discrimination,” according to the BBC.

The court hearing will go ahead in September and the man will be challenging the law citing that by having to be listed as the child’s mother will breach his “human right to respect for private and family life.” He also states that “interference” such as this is not necessary since the laws have “evolved in society” to such a point that he should be able to be listed by his legal role in the child’s life and not according to the other law which sees him as the birth mother.

While the full trial is months away, a preliminary hearing was heard on Thursday in London. Lawyers for the Registrar General for England and Wales presented their preliminary arguments in relation to this groundbreaking case, as the transgender man’s lawyers also laid out their arguments in relation to the law.

In the initial arguments, it was revealed that, in the past, transgender men have given birth in the past in England and Wales. However, they have always been listed as the birth mother, regardless of whether they wanted to be listed that way or not.