Transgender Illinois man to be listed as father on baby's birth certificate
CHICAGO, Ill. (WTVO) — In a first for Illinois, a transgender man who gave birth to a baby has been listed as the child's father on the baby's birth certificate.
Myles Davis was initially going to be listed as the mother on the baby's birth certificate, while Myles' wife, Precious, also transgender, was going to be listed as the father.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Myles is the communications director of Equality Illinois, which reached out to the LGBTQ rights group Lambda Legal, which sent and advocacy letter to the state.
The Illinois Department of Public Health, officials agreed with the couple's request and granted them "accurate gender identification" on baby Zayn's birth certificate.
"I feel so relieved," Myles told the Tribune. "I'd gone through two years of (in vitro fertilization) and nine months of a very difficult pregnancy just to be misgendered at the end. It was really breaking my heart."
Lambda Legal says a identity document, such as a birth certificate, can threaten a transgendered person's safety, if a child should, say, bring a document to preschool enrollment or for baseball registration, effectively outing the parents as transgender and "potentially exposing them to hostility, discrimination or even violence," the Tribune reported.
According to the Tribune's report, Myles and Precious had to go off their gender-reinforcing hormones to have a biological child, during which an egg from Myles' body was fertilized with sperm from Precious, which was implanted in Myles' uterus.
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