He is a trans man who carried his child in his womb for nine months and fought to be recognized as a father, but the justice system requires him to be listed as a “mother”

Freddy McConnell wasn’t asking for a privilege. He was asking for a word.

This British journalist for The Guardian, from Deal, Kent, was 32 years old when, in 2019, he arrived at a London court with a single demand: that his son Jack’s birth certificate say “father”. Or, at least, “parent”. His transition had been legally recognized in 2017. He had stopped hormone treatment so he could become pregnant using a sperm donor, and in 2018 he gave birth to Jack. The entire process was documented in the documentary “Seahorse”, directed by Jeanie Finlay.

Judge Andrew McFarlane was clear: his legal gender is male, but his parental status, because he had given birth, is that of a mother. Freddy was saddened and announced that he would appeal, but he lost in the Court of Appeal as well in 2020, and the Supreme Court refused to review the case.

However, he did not give up on being a father, and in 2021 he raised funds to have his second child in Sweden, where trans men can be listed as fathers from day one. ❤️