Freddy McConnell appeal today (Transman who wants to be registered as their child's father) *Title edited by MNHQ*

[MrsSnippyPants]

Haven't seen anything about this and it just popped up on Sky News. Hearing continues tomorrow

Newspaper report here
www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/transgender-man-who-gave-birth-21629478

‘commissioning’ mother

Some turns of phrase just make the heart sink. Often ones that are dehumanising.

As with a GRC, people in Ireland are expected to accept the legal, fiction definition of the word 'mother'.

Such good news - massive relief here.

Hannah and Jake will need to apply for a parental order in the English family courts as English residents, as this is what will make them the legal parents.

The surrogate mother will remain on the birth certificate as she is the mother, but she will relinquish her parental rights by signing this order. (The Law Commission proposes reducing the time in which a surrogate mother has a 'cooling off' period, post birth.)

As the surrogate mother is from Ireland I don't know how far this counts as a 'foreign' surrogacy arrangement. I imagine much will depend on what agreements are already in place between English and Irish law, but neither Jake, nor Hannah will be considered the mother on the birth certificate.

Under the international human rights laws a child has a right to a nationality, identity, to know and be raised by their parent/s and to have their birth registered. For more check I it the 1989 Convention on Rights of a Child.

The legal mother, the surrogate mother, will have to register the birth of Millie, the baby girl, (funny isn't it how that's one of the things we know about the baby, her sex) and it can be around 6 months later that a parental order is usually granted.

Jake and Hannah will no doubt be watching Freddie's case closely.

Sheerahah That's surprising if they had a surrogate from Rep of Ireland.

"Traditionally, the surrogate mother is considered the legal mother of the child and the child’s guardian, because she has given birth to the child."

www.citizensinformation.ie/en/birth_family_relationships/adoption_and_fostering/surrogacy.html

As others have said and is being discussed on Twitter, having IVF doesn't exactly scream being committed to living as a man.

What is the process to have a GRC rescinded/revoked if you are found to have not been truthful? Indeed, is there a process or was the GRA drafted assuming no woman would ever consider applying for a GRC while undergoing IVF? Are their any repercussions at all? And if not in the GRA act what is the mechanism for a third party to appeal for a GRC overturned?

From the moment of birth someone must have parental responsibility for a newly born child, for example, to authorise medical treatment and more generally to become responsible for its care.

So it all seems to hinge on whether you think the purpose of a birth certificate is to ensure that someone has clear legal responsibility for a child from the moment of birth... or whether the point of a birth certificate is to affirm the parent's gender identity.

This is very good news from a legal perspective. I still feel very sorry for the poor child. I wonder if the IVF clinic had any ethical qualms.

I saw "Seahorse" and Freddie came over as, at best, utterly self-absorbed and narcissistic

This trans idealogy spreads its tentacles deep into the lives of females.

Nowhere in the female experience feels safe anymore.

For the law to decree Freddy to remain as the biological mother is a small but significant push back.

Good news. What a relief.

I do feel sorry for that child. I worry about the effect it will have on their psychology to have a parent whom their instincts are telling them is female but whose claim is to be a man? Telling male from female adults is fairly hard-wired into chlidren. Mine had a phase around 18 months to 2 years old of being frightened of strange males. Being gaslit in any situation is very psychologically disturbing.

erish he has had what I believe is coyly referred to as "top" surgery.

Thanks for the clarification.

Women who have had mastectomies when they give birth are mothers.

As others have said and is being discussed on Twitter, having IVF doesn't exactly scream being committed to living as a man.

But why not? If some women have penises and some men have vaginas, then some men will have babies, therefore it is a male thing to do.

This is where all this fuckery with language gets us, man and woman, male and female no longer have any fixed meaning, and as always the sex-formerly known as female bears the brunt.

Mine had a phase around 18 months to 2 years old of being frightened of strange males
As we all know this is very, very common.
It's an instinctive reaction for infants to
seek out their mothers. They have an Innate knowledge of who is male and who is female.

Good men know this, all women know this.

Good news. It would be incredibly disturbing for this case to have been won. The ramifications would be huge.

I don't have the best impression of Freddie or their motivations but I also think Freddie is probably a pawn of much bigger players. The Surrogacy industry is clearly trying to get a foothold in the UK and it would most certainly suit their legal and financial interests.

Guardian
'Transgender man loses appeal court battle to be registered as father
Freddy McConnell, who lived as a man before giving birth, hopes to take case to supreme court'

(extract)
"A court of appeal panel headed by the lord chief justice, Lord Burnett, effectively came down in favour of the right of a child born to a transgender parent to know the biological reality of its birth, rather than the parent’s right to be recognised on the birth certificate in their legal gender.

McConnell said it was “distressing to be a trans person and have your most fundamental rights overlooked”. But he urged trans rights activists not to despair and said he would apply to the supreme court for permission to take the case to the highest level.

The LGBT rights charity Stonewall said it was “a disappointing blow for trans communities”. Laura Russell, its director of campaigns, policy and research, said: “Once again, the courts have missed a vital opportunity to send a positive message that recognises all parents, including LGBT parents, for who they are.” (continues)

McConnell began medical transition with testosterone therapy in 2013 and in 2014, and underwent a double mastectomy. His passport and NHS records were changed to show he was male. But he retained his female reproductive system. He gave birth in 2018 after suspending his hormone treatment and allowing his menstrual cycle to restart. The process was captured in the documentary film Seahorse, a reference to the fish that reproduce through male pregnancies." (continues)

Continuing to call McConnell and other transgender men “mother” on their children’s birth certificates would protect the rights of their children to know who gave birth to them and that person’s status, the appeal court found.

It also said an infringement of McConnell’s rights to family life under the Human Rights Act was justified by the need to maintain “a clear and coherent scheme of registration of births”. It said that, in the context of IVF and surrogacy, parliament had made clear that the person who gives birth to a child is always described as the mother of that child, even if it was not her egg that was fertilised.

The judgment added: “The law is clear that a child only ever has one mother, although there may be more than one ‘parent’.”

McConnell said Burnett’s ruling set the rights of the child and parent in conflict and that this did not reflect reality." (continues)

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/29/transgender-man-loses-appeal-court-battle-registered-father-freddy-mcconnell

We don't have laws or courts making decisions about massive issues to 'send positive messages' ffs. It's beyond mickey mouse.

And what 'fundamental human rights'?

Fundamental human rights are the right not to be executed, or to be imprisoned without trial, a right to education, to not be trafficked or sold into slavery. No one has a 'human right' to be allowed to be called something they are in fact not because they want to.

Freddie and stonewall are all about the rights of trans people, with no consideration of the rights of the child. Absolute selfish narcissism

Every now and then I startle and wake up to how utterly insane this is all over again

Sorry, I know that I'm only saying what everyone knows, but

Freddie genuinely believes that Freddie is male. While being pregnant, while giving birth, Freddie continued to believe this. Freddie is a journalist on a national newspaper, not psychotic, and has the support of a huge number of people who see it as a fundamental human rights issue that everyone else should be forced to believe this too

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Freddie Stonewall sounds to me like a fictitious character in a film.

I feel the same, AnotherLass.

Once again, the courts have missed a vital opportunity to send a positive message that recognises all parents, including LGBT parents, for who they are

That is exactly what the law does now.

A parent has 'parental responsibility' not 'motherly responsibility' or 'fatherly responsibility'. The word mother on the birth certificate just describes the person who gave birth.

As others have noted on reading that Guardian report I'm struck once again by the complete and utter selfish narcissism of all of this...that's before you get to "how utterly insane this is" as AnotherLass puts it.

And what are the "most fundamental rights" that are being overlooked?

If ever there was a better example of unreasonable demands being couched as rights I can't think of it.

The thing I really object to is this idea that the purpose of legal documents is not to neutrally establish rights and responsibilities but to somehow define your identity.

I think it's really sinister.

the courts have missed a vital opportunity to send a positive message that recognises all parents

Well spotted merrymouse
The law already recognises parents.