In a few weeks transgender Thomas Beatie is due to deliver his and his wife's child. While Beatie is legally listed as a man he will be on the birth certificate as the mother of the little tyke that pops out. Talk about a kid with built in issues.
Although the child's original birth documents will li
st Beatie as his mother it is likely that the couple will petition the court to have a new birth certificate issued labeling him as the father.
This is a common enough procedure in legal terms. A person's first birth certificate lists the mother as whomever "expulsion or extraction [of the living child] from its mother." This is often changed later in the case of adoptions and surrogate mothers. In the case with Beatie he is acting as his own child's surrogate mother.
Lesbian couples in Oregon have also used the birth certificate switch. It allows for both women being equal parents for their child.
This practice though may soon be a thing of the past as same-sex couples gain more rights. A 2007 state amendment outlaws discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, defined to include "gender identity, regardless of whether the individual's gender identity, appearance, expression or behavior differs from that traditionally associated with the individual's sex at birth." This provision may in fact help Beatie. Legally it could be argued that calling Beatie the mother of the child would be discrimination because of his legal status as a man.
It is safe to assume the birth certificate that the child will have will state Beatie is his father. No matter what Beatie will be this child's parent and in the end that is all that matters.
When Daddy Is Mommy What Goes On The Birth Certificate?
Email
Print
Share
del.icio.us
facebook
newsvine
reddit
stumbleupon
technorati