The Gender Recognition Act 2004 says in section 9 Where a full gender recognition certificate is issued to a person, the person’s gender becomes for all purposes the acquired gender. But despite that, a parent who has a full gender recognition certificate may be forced to register in their natal sex – in other words, a person who is legally a man may have to register as their child’s “mother” and a person who is legally a woman may have to register as their child’s “father”. This has been challenged in two recent legal cases. In one case the judge said:
The issue at the centre of the case is the Government’s insistence that the person who gives birth to a child should be registered as the “mother”. It is this title, rather than the need to register his role in the birth, to which TT and others in a similar situation take extreme exception because of the gender-specific nature of the term as they see it to be.
If the registration scheme were to record the identity of the person who carried and gave birth to a child as the ‘gestational parent’ or some similar gender-neutral phrase, then, as I understand TT’s and YY’s case, there would be no issue.
There is no reason why people who have faced all the difficulties of changing their legal sex, and who have been recognised by the law in their “acquired” gender, should have to register in their natal gender when they become parents. Our proposal would replace the language of “mother” and “father” with gender-neutral language while ensuring that the children of trans parents could understand the truth about their origins.
Submission to the Law Commission
In 2021 the Law Commission of England and Wales will undertake its 14th programme, where it considers what changes should be made to the law. To see our full submission to the Law Commission, click here.
Birth Registration Reform Group UK 