Sex-change husband told to register boy as illegitimate child

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KOBE, Jan. 10 Kyodo -
A Hyogo Prefecture man, who had legally changed his sexual status due to sexual
identity disorder, said Sunday that a local municipality had told him to
register his son born by artificial insemination as an illegitimate child.
Children born through artificial insemination by donor are ordinarily accepted
as legitimate, experts say, because municipal offices do not necessarily have
knowledge of the birth process.
But in the man's case, the municipal office knew that he had changed his sex in
his family registration record and that apparently led the office to deny the
legitimacy of the man's son, they said.
''This man is lawfully married. It is discriminatory not to recognize him as
the father,'' said Toshiyuki Oshima, a Kyushu International University
professor and head of the Japanese Society of Gender Identity Disorder.
The man, whose name is being withheld, is a 27-year-old resident of the city of
Shiso, Hyogo Prefecture. He received approval to change his sex under a special
law concerning people with sexual identity disorder and the change was
reflected in his family registration record in March 2008. He married the
following month.
On Nov. 4 last year, his wife, 28, gave birth to the boy through artificial
insemination using semen from the man's brother.
The man went to register the boy the following day but was unable to do so and
was later told by the municipal office to register the boy as adopted.
Following legal advice, the man has sent the birth report of his son to the
city office and is waiting for it to respond.
If his request to register the boy as a legitimate child is refused again, he
will take the case to court, he said. ''I am recognized by the country as a man
but not as a father. I wonder why the special law (for people with sexual
identity disorder) exists.''
==Kyodo