The Federal Court of Justice has ruled that trans men who were registered as female when a child was born cannot recognize paternity.
The Federal Court of Justice ruled that trans men who were registered as female at the time of the birth of a child before the Self-Determination Act came into force cannot legally recognize paternity.
AI-generated summary
Since November 2024, the Self-Determination Act has made it easier to change one's gender entry without a court decision.
According to a decision by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), trans men who were officially registered as female when the child was born and before the Self-Determination Act came into force in November 2024 cannot recognize paternity. Only a man could do this, according to a resolution by the Twelfth Civil Senate. The BGH does not comment on the constellation that a female-to-male transperson was recognized as such at birth. (Ref. XII ZB 456/25)
According to the information, the mother of the child born in 2014 agreed in 2016 for the trans man to acknowledge paternity of the child. In the meantime, the district court legally determined that the person who had previously been female was now considered male and changed the first name.
According to the BGH, the adults later separated. In 2023, the mother applied for the recognition of paternity to be declared invalid. She was unsuccessful at the Stralsund District Court and the Rostock Higher Regional Court. The BGH now decided the matter differently.
With the Self-Determination Act, transgender, intersex and non-binary people can have their gender entry in the civil status register and their first name changed more easily. A court decision is no longer required.
With regard to the new law, the BGH Senate also sees its decision as consistent with the legislature's understanding. This continued to pursue “the goal of legally assigning children to their biological parents in such a way that their descent is not traced back to two legal mothers or fathers in contradiction to their biological conception,” the BGH quotes from the justification for the law. A woman cannot be a father.
Regarding the recognition of paternity, the Self-Determination Act states that the legal relationship between a person and their children is determined by their gender entry in the civil status register at the time of the child's birth. However, trans women can make a declaration that their gender entry should be decisive before the gender change. According to the BGH, this addition is intended to enable them to be assigned father and child based on their previous male gender without having to carry out a procedure to determine paternity.

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