A transgender man who fought for years to be recognized as his child’s father has lost his legal battle in the United Kingdom after the supreme court declined to hear his final appeal.
Freddy McConnell, 34, has lived as a man for more than 10 years, but kept his female reproductive system and gave birth to a baby in 2018 after suspending hormone treatment, the Guardian reported.
When a hospital refused to list him as the baby’s father, he went to court to challenge who can legally be considered one.
But he lost his case in the high court in September 2019 and then again when he went to the appeals court seven months later.
They ruled that even though he was considered a man by law and had a gender recognition certificate, he could not be listed on the birth certificate as the “father” or parent, the Guardian reported. He appears on the birth certificate as the child’s “mother.”
McConnell took his battle to the country’s highest court, but it announced Monday that the justices had decided not to consider his final appeal because “the applications do not raise an arguable point of law which ought to be considered at this time.”
In the wake of the decision, McConnell called for an overhaul of the laws surrounding legal guardians and vowed to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
“The law around birth registration doesn’t treat LGBT people equally on any level,” McConnel said.
“There needs to be a series of cases to address this or a change in the law. I feel I am too deep into this to stop now. I am going to keep fighting and I ask anyone who can contribute to this to reach out.”