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Trans Man Won't Be Named Father on Birth Certificate, Court Rules

Seahorse
Manuel Vazquez

Freddy McConnell is the first trans man in the U.K. to request being listed as father on his child's birth documents.

British courts have denied a request from a trans man who gave birth to be listed as a father on his child's birth certificate.

Freddy McConnell, who shared his story of becoming pregnant while transitioning in the documentary film Seahorse, lost his legal battle in the High Court last week, Pink News reports.

"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," McConnell said in a statement released on Twitter.

"I fear this decision has distressing implications for many kinds of families. I will seek to appeal and give no more interviews at this stage."

McConnell, a multimedia journalist at The Guardian, had previously been denied a request have his identity kept private. He is the first trans man in the United Kingdom to request to be listed as his child's father on a birth document.

McConnell earlier spoke with Out about the particular challenges of entering parenthood as a transgender man.

"I was talking about this with another seahorse dad, it feels like a super power, and it's fine that it's really unique and rare, and that's just the way it is and that's not a bad thing and it's not a weak thing," he said.

"It's just more about acknowledging the dynamic, the gender dynamic, and what it has meant for discussions of pregnancy, and awareness. It hit me like a ton of bricks. And it's not a very helpful observation for me to make as a man, that this thing that women experience generally doesn't. ... 'I didn't realize looking after a baby is really hard.'"

"Millions of people collectively groan," he continued.

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