The first baby with no mum
Transgender man who gave birth to infant wants to be registered as dad
A HIGH Court judge is to rule on whether a baby should become the first to be born without a legal mother.
The baby’s natural mother, who had transgender treatment and now lives as a man, appealed yesterday for the birth record to show only that the child has a father – or parent.
Mr Justice Francis called the claim a first in English law and said that the outcome may pile pressure on ministers to reform the law that governs changes of gender.
The case follows Theresa May’s promise last year that the Government would bring in reforms to let people choose their own sex at will without needing medical documentation.
However no new law has yet been presented amid evidence that large numbers of the public are increasingly concerned over the impact of transgender rights.
The baby in the High Court case, who cannot be named, is the child of a single parent born a woman but now lives as a man after surgery. The mother has won official recognition of her new status as a man under existing gender law.
He held his baby as he sat next to a lawyer at the hearing in London. At one point he stood to rock the baby to sleep as it sucked a dummy while lawyers discussed issues with the judge.
Mr Justice Francis was told he had been biologically able to get pregnant and give birth, but had legally become a man when the child was born. The man wishes to be identified as the child’s father or parent on the birth certificate.
But register office officials have said the law demands that anyone who gives birth to a child must be registered as the baby’s mother.
The man is now suing the official in charge of register offices – Mark Thomson, Registrar General for England and Wales, a civil servant who also heads the Passport Office. He claims that the birth certificate mother rule is a breach of his right to family life under human rights law.
His claim says that forcing him to register as a mother is interference in his private life, and is not necessary in the light of ‘changes which have evolved in society’.
Mr Justice Francis said the issue had never been raised in a court before and that if the man won his fight, ministers might have to consider changing the law. He is to make a ruling after a full hearing to be staged in September.
During yesterday’s preliminary hearing, the judge said reports should not reveal the baby’s gender or age, nor the man’s age, and should not give any clue as to where the man and child lived.
Lawyers say other transgender men have given birth but have been registered on birth certificates as mothers. The court heard how the man was born a woman but ‘realised he was trans’ several years ago. He has lived as a man since then and has undergone surgery to ‘re-contour’ his upper body. He was granted a gender-recognition certificate, the legal proof of gender transition under current law, more than a year ago and before the baby was born.
Hannah Markham QC, representing him, said in a written submission: ‘It is an accepted fact that a female who transitions to male may in law maintain the ability to conceive and give birth to a child.’
She said he ‘seeks a declaration that being forced to register as a mother to his son is contrary to his right to private and family life within Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 and that such interference, in the light of the changes which have evolved in society are no longer proportionate’. The man also wants a declaration that forms used to record parent identity discriminate against trans and intersex parents.
Miss Markham added that ‘the current law relating to the registration of births and deaths is no longer compatible with the changes in society, the evolvement of freedom of expression and gender equality and the protection of an individual’s rights to identify as a particular gender’.
Lawyer Sarah Hannett, who leads the Registrar General’s legal team, said the man had obtained a gender-recognition certificate under the 2004 Gender Recognition Act. She explained the Registrar General thinks registrars may not register mothers as fathers.