Trans man Freddy McConnell's challenge to be named as father on birth certificate deemed inadmissible by the ECHR

It’s not about whether trans identifying people make good parents or not. It is about how honest those parents are about their child’s identity, their role in the child’s birth, and the legal documents and records that certify that child’s identity for probably the rest of its life, and further down the line, of the child’s future children who also have a right to know their genetic and social heritage.

If parents are prepared to lie to their own child about the basic circumstances of their birth then that begs the question why, since a birth certificate is recognised as being for the child’s benefit. Who would benefit from the lie? What would it say about a parent who would be so fundamentally dishonest about their own biology? Whose wellbeing is served by the deception, whose wellbeing is seen as the paramount focus?

Yes, this is a child-centred law. Babies are able to recognise their mother’s voice when they are born and will soon be able to recognise her by her scent. They have a strong instinct to stay close to her and modern postnatal care acknowledges the importance of this, e.g. by encouraging skin-to-skin contact.

I cannot think of an any alternative way of presuming parental responsibility which would be as effective at putting the interests of the baby first. The UK already has provision for those rare cases in which a baby must be removed from his/her mother at birth due to serious safeguarding concerns.

I'm sorry, but if you believe the fundamental difference between men and women isn't simply that we are different sexes, but that our minds are different, so different in fact that if a male person thinks "like a woman" then he actually is a woman, and vice versa...

... and if you believe that female people, the half of humanity who have been disempowered, objectified, sexualised, abused, exploited and marginalised all over the world and through most of human history simply because of our bodies are so unimportant that we don't even justify having our own name, let alone legal rights and protections, but a man who wants to take us as a metaphor to express his own sense of self does...

then yes you are sexist.

You might not like that, and I'm sorry about that. But maybe, just being honest about what someone saying they are "trans" is really saying about who they believe men and women are and the limitations they believe have to come along with those labels not just for themselves but for everyone else as well is worth thinking about.

Because being gay is so everyday it's not even worth noticing.

And being gender non-conforming is great - as a Feminist I'm all for smashing those stereotypes.

But believing that if a boy or a girl, or a man or a woman, doesn't think in a gender-conforming way then they must be the actual opposite sex on the inside - well that is just a very sad and sexist way to think, and the sooner people realise that and start challenging it the better.

No they wouldn't. They wouldn't pick on anyone for how someone else in their family is. And I'm not sexist in the slightest. I just believe that we should allow people to live their own lives as they see fit. And having a trans parent who loves and takes care of a child is fine. Whether you like it or not, trans people exist. So there will be families where a parent is trans. The nuclear family - mum/dad/kids has not been the only acceptable option for years. Nor is it necessarily the best - single parents, gay parents, trans parents are all parents first and anything else second. Being trans is not a risk to the child in and of itself. So maybe - just leaving people alone who aren't harming anyone is worth thinking about.

Stating facts isn’t hate. Not agreeing with an ideology isn’t phobic. Tying your children up in a lie isn’t loving. Quite the opposite.

You can have your own opinions, you can’t have your own facts.

I have a great life, here on reality island. Join it sometime.

Because a birth certificate is recognition of a biological process that involves people's genitals. It's not a certificate for winning first prize in a competition.

Would they pick on a child with a Gender Critical Feminist parent?

Just gauging if you bring your children up to be as sexist as you are.

How... how did you think babies were made?

You neo-sexist types are very weirdly squeamish about people's bodies.

Maybe that's why genderism appeals. It's all nice consumerism and clothes and identities and not dealing with any of that nasty icky body stuff.

Children of parents who taught them it's ok to discriminate against people who are different to them by growing up in closed minded households might be. Children who have been raised to accept others are less likely to be. My kids wouldn't pick on a child with a trans parent in a million years. Neither would any of their friends.

The discussion is about a birth certificate. Why are you talking about his genitals? Ugh.

Or their school friends will be very quick to enlighten them. Children can be cruel.

Since Freddie has been all over the media for years, Freddie’s children will know the whole story as soon as they can Google.

Some people even lie to their children about being able to change sex, and become a girl when they were born a boy. Look at that poor eleven year old transfer by his parents at two and now suffering severe mental and physical health problems. Pure evil those parents are. The poor poor children.

I think most gay couples would at some point explain that since they are both men they had to find a woman willing to use her body to grow their baby. Which -however distasteful to many people and I am one - is at least the truth.

I am not sure what Freddie’s explanation of where the children came from will be. Would Freddie tell the truth that although claiming to be Daddy they are actually Mummy, or make up a lie about a mythical mummy.

Thanks 😁

“The law is increasingly recognising that there is no ethical case for treating children as legal accessories to adult cross sex identification claims,”

Shame Freddy doesn't recognise that, it's hard to believe she wasn't aware of this verdict from the ECHR before she took her case there. What was her motivation, is she so determined to make history, or is it a case of a fake man not taking no for answer as well.

Here you go:

https://archive.ph/lJPi9

That's a false equivalence, same sex attracted has nothing to do with genderwang.
A gay male couple won't be pretending to be something there not, they won't be lying to their children.

A link to the article that JB wrote that's was mention in the link above. It's from 2023 and not about Freddy.

https://thecritic.co.uk/mother-means-something/

It's behind a pay wall, and I don't know how to archive it, sorry

Here is the post on x from the 'Children of Trabnsitioners' group- who all have a transparent. It has a link to the judgement and their website links to the issues raised:

'A reminder of this ECHR case protecting UK Children of Transitioners last week. We're fed up with lying abusive UK transparents/ trans lobby groups who keep trying (& failing!) to remove our human rights in court. See https://childrenoftransitioners.org/paperwork/ & https://childrenoftransitioners.org/six-children/

So glad to hear this judgment. We have been threatened for a long time that the ECHR is going to back up every single demand of transactivists. May this be the first of many sane decisions when the demands made have to be balanced against the rights of other people.

Do gay couples who adopt tell their children they don't have a mother?

McConnell's children are 8 and 4. I have no idea, and presumably you don't either, what their home life is like and what they call McConnell. But plenty of kids who've been told that Father Christmas is real are devastated when they find out the truth, and feel they have been lied to by their parents. McConnell's kids WILL find out at some point that their "father" is really their "mother" - and how will they feel then? The deception here is off the scale.

If advocating for the right of a child to know their mother and be able to call her that makes me transphobic and homophobic, what does that say about the ideologies in play here?

Why would you think a gay male couple would not be honest about who their child's mother is?

Just trying to gauge if you are a homophobe as well as sexist.

Do you feel that way about when a child is the child of a gay male couple? Just trying to gage if you are a homophobe as well as a transphobe.