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High Court rules transgender father cannot be named on birth certificate

58 replies

IwantToRetire · 22/12/2025 18:45

A High Court judgment confirming that a transgender man cannot be registered as the father on the birth certificate of his children highlights the difficulties faced by transgender parents, and the implications of marriage within the statutory framework governing legal parenthood.

In the judgment handed down last week following a hearing in July, Mrs Justice Lieven set out the facts relating to FZ and MZ, the parents of two children, DZ and AZ. FZ is a transgender man with a full Gender Recognition Certificate issued under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA), and MZ is his wife. The couple married in 2022 and conceived the children using artificial insemination from a known donor, although “outside of a licensed clinic for the purposes of the HFEA 2008”.

The parents sought declarations of parentage for both children, alongside child arrangements and related orders. However, the court heard there was a crucial difference between the circumstances of the two children’s births, with DZ born before the marriage and AZ after.
The central question for the court was whether FZ, under domestic law, could be named as the father of the children.

Article continues at https://todaysfamilylawyer.co.uk/high-court-rules-transgender-father-cannot-be-named-on-birth-certificate/

Suspect there was an earlier thread about this, but no time to search.

High Court rules transgender father cannot be named on birth certificate - Today's Family Lawyer

High Court rules transgender father cannot be named on birth certificate: A High Court judgment confirming that a transgender man cannot be registered as the father on the birth certificate of his children highlights the

https://todaysfamilylawyer.co.uk/high-court-rules-transgender-father-cannot-be-named-on-birth-certificate/

OP posts:
NotNatacha · 22/12/2025 19:16

RoamingToaster · 22/12/2025 19:11

I used to think birth certificates were about your biological parents but they seem to be about the people raising you if in a married couple at time of birth.

This wouldn’t be a story if they were married before the first child was born it seems.

Edited

If you have a child born to a heterosexual couple I think it is assumed that the husband is the father of the child.

Whether the mother can register someone else as the father I don’t know.

From other MN threads I think the husband can register himself as the father if he gets to register office first.

NotNatacha · 22/12/2025 19:12

I think the headline is misleading, or limited.

Headline:
High Court rules transgender father cannot be named on birth certificate

If it said

‘High Court rules transgender father can only be named on birth certificate for the child born after marriage’
or
‘High Court rules transgender father cannot be named on birth certificate of child born before marriage’

it would be clearer.

RoamingToaster · 22/12/2025 19:11

I used to think birth certificates were about your biological parents but they seem to be about the people raising you if in a married couple at time of birth.

This wouldn’t be a story if they were married before the first child was born it seems.

KnickerlessParsons · 22/12/2025 19:09

Taking on the traditional role of a father within a family does not make a person the biological father of a child.

OpheliaWitchoftheWoods · 22/12/2025 19:09

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

NotNatacha · 22/12/2025 19:06

If I understand the article correctly, there seemed to be two central considerations.

The inseminination did not take place in a ‘licensed clinic’, so the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 does not apply. (The article doesn’t explain what that Act says.)

One pregnancy took place before the mother, who carried the child, was married to the person wishing to be registered as the father, and one afterwards.

The judgement states that her spouse can be registered as the father of the child who was born after the marriage, but not the one born before. A step-parental adoption can be applied for, though, ‘which would convey legal parentage.’

Justme56 · 22/12/2025 18:59

They may have a GRC under the GRA but the same Act is also specific about parentage. At any point the TM could detransition and where would that leave the child.

PegDope · 22/12/2025 18:51

Rightly so.

The birth certificate is not the place to act out your ego identity. It’s a document belonging to the child who has the right to know their biological identity.

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