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		</div><p>A transgender man who has given birth but does not want to be described as “mother” on a birth certificate is considering an appeal after losing a High Court fight, a lawyer says.</p>
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<p>Freddy McConnell, a multimedia journalist who works for The Guardian, wants to be registered as father or parent.</p>
<p>A senior judge on Wednesday ruled against him after analysing argument at a High Court trial in London.</p>
<p>Andrew McFarlane, president of the Family Division of the High Court, heard Mr McConnell is a single parent who was born a woman but now lives as a man following surgery.</p>
<blockquote><p>In the UK he has the right to change his gender on his own birth certificate, so why not his child&#8217;s</p></blockquote>
<p>Mr McConnell was biologically able to get pregnant and give birth but had legally become a man when the child was born.</p>
<p>A registrar told him the law requires people who give birth to be registered as mothers.</p>
<p>He took legal action against the General Register Office, which administers the registration of births and deaths in England and Wales.</p>
<p>Mr McFarlane concluded people who give birth are legally mothers regardless of their gender.</p>
<p>In a written ruling on the case, he said: “There is a material difference between a person’s gender and their status as a parent.</p>
<p>“Being a ‘mother’, whilst hitherto always associated with being female, is the status afforded to a person who undergoes the physical and biological process of carrying a pregnancy and giving birth.</p>
<p>“It is now medically and legally possible for an individual, whose gender is recognised in law as male, to become pregnant and give birth to their child.</p>
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<p>“Whilst that person’s gender is ‘male’, their parental status, which derives from their biological role in giving birth, is that of ‘mother’.”</p>
<p>Lawyer Karen Holden, who represented Mr McConnell and is the founder of A City Law Firm, said an appeal is being considered.</p>
<p>She added: “As a firm that champions equality we are of course disappointed at the judgment and it highlights how the law is slow to keep up to modern society.</p>
<p>“Freddy is legally a man and his legal papers display the same. In the UK he has the right to change his gender on his own birth certificate, so why not his child’s?</p>
<p>“Freddy is considering whether he wishes to appeal.”</p>
<p>Lawyers said the child would have been the first person born in England and Wales not to legally have a mother had Mr McConnell won.</p>
<p>Mr McFarlane heard argument from lawyers representing Mr McConnell, the child, the head of the General Register Office, Department of Health and Social Care ministers and Home Office ministers.</p>
<p>Barrister Hannah Markham QC, who led Mr McConnell’s legal team, told the judge it was in the child’s interests for Mr McConnell to be registered as father or parent.</p>
<p>She said many children are growing up in “rainbow families” and a child has a right to have a parent’s gender “appropriately identified” on their birth certificate.</p>
<p>But barristers representing ministers and registrars said Mr McConnell’s claim should be dismissed.</p>
<p>Ben Jaffey QC and Sarah Hannett said the case raised complex public policy issues about protecting the rights and interests of trans people.</p>
<p>But they said a registrar had a “duty in law” to register Mr McConnell as “mother”, and argued his human rights had not been breached.</p>
<p>Mr Jaffey said there is a logic behind the law.</p>
<p>He said the law distinguishes between a “person who gives birth” and a “person who does not”.</p>
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