The trans man in fight for ‘motherless’ child
A TRANSGENDER man fighting to ensure his child is the first in the Western world to not have a mother on the birth certificate has lost his battle for anonymity after the High Court ruled he had identified himself in his own film.
A senior judge ruled yesterday that newspapers, including The Daily Telegraph, could name Freddy Mcconnell because of a “genuine public interest”.
Mr Mcconnell, who was born a woman, had insisted the media should not be able to name him even though he is the willing subject of a documentary that premiered at a film festival in New York in April.
Throughout the documentary, Mr Mcconnell openly shares personal details including his attempts to get pregnant, giving birth and footage of his child’s face.
To promote the film – to air on the BBC this year – Mr Mcconnell shared the trailer on social media, where he also shared the child’s gender.
Lawyers successfully argued that Mr Mcconnell was “trying to have his cake and eat it” by restricting elements of his story – namely the court proceedings – being published in newspapers while openly revealing in detail the story of his journey to becoming a man and the conception and birth of his child.
Mr Mcconnell had launched a separate High Court legal action against the Government earlier this year after the General Registrar Office refused to register him as the “father” on his child’s birth certificate. Mr Mcconnell and his child were protected by a court
anonymity order preventing the publication of their names, address and the child’s gender. They could only be referred to as “TT” and “YY” in reports. The child’s anonymity, which newspapers did not object to, remains in place.
Lord Justice Mcfarlane, president of the family division of the High Court, yesterday lifted the order shielding Mr Mcconnell’s identity.
Mr Mcconnell was accused of being in “serious breach of his duty of candour to the court” by failing to disclose the existence of the film, which is called Seahorse.
In April, two months after the initial court hearing, Mr Mcconnell also gave an interview to the Guardian – where he works as a digital journalist – revealing his full name, where he lives with his child and details of his transition.
At a hearing at the beginning of May, Lord Justice Mcfarlane said it was “striking” that Mr Mcconnell chose to exclude mention of the documentary from the initial court proceedings, tell- ing his barristers: “That is to misunderstand the process entirely.”
The president concluded that Mr Mcconnell had not acted to deliberately mislead the court.
Mr Mcconnell’s dispute against the Government was first reported by The Telegraph in February this year, when his lawyers argued that it was a breach of their transgender client’s human rights to force him to be recognised as the child’s mother.
In his ruling, Lord Justice Mcfarlane said: “There is genuine public interest in the question of law and human rights at the centre of this case”, the likes of which “has not apparently been determined by any court in this jurisdiction or elsewhere in the Western world”.
In an interview with Buzzfeed, Mr Mcconnell explained why he had wished to remain anonymous in court but identified in Seahorse: “Sharing a personal story is very different to being seen to be trying to change the law.”