Susan's Place Transgender Resources

hello everyone,

I have some questions about being transdad but right now my fiance is on 12 weeks pregnant with twins. I'm pretty excited about becoming a new dad! But i'm not sure how to do with children's birth certificates after they born? I mean i havent fill form for name change for my name yet. Do i need to put my current name on their birth cerificates as father or have to get my name changed for court before they born? Does it happen to you before when yall have kids?

I think it will come down to your birth certificate name and gender.

Each State is there own so they may have exception's

Good luck it's one of them things you will need to check with vital serves.

hello mrs izzy thanks for reply to my posted message but im talking about listed on kids' birth cerificate as father with currently female name or have name changed before. I just need talk to someone whos has more experience with kids through birth certificates to know that their kids to have a dad. my fiance is cisgender and i'm on one year t but no surgeries yet. i just trying to figure it out.

Quote from: ajayjo on September 15, 2014, 12:15:37 AM
hello mrs izzy thanks for reply to my posted message but im talking about listed on kids' birth cerificate as father with currently female name or have name changed before. I just need talk to someone whos has more experience with kids through birth certificates to know that their kids to have a dad. my fiance is cisgender and i'm on one year t but no surgeries yet. i just trying to figure it out.

ajayjo,

You should find out the rules in your state.  Change your name as soon as possible (and your birth certificate), and find out the possibility of you being listed as the "father" or other parent on your childrens' birth certificate.  Each state is different.  This is what mrs izzy was trying to get across.

It is smart that you are looking into this now, so that you can get things lined up.  Some states don't care if you have had surgeries or not.

I can only echo Brett's thought that you need to check with the state where your kids will be born.

My kid was born in Florida, long before I transitioned. I haven't pushed hard to get them to do anything, but they have not been particularly friendly or understanding when I've tried to ask questions about it. As it stands, I can't in most situations prove that I am the parent of my child unless I produce the original unaltered birth certificate along with my Oregon name change court order and current state identification, and even with a pile of documents people don't always believe me.

I know it's stupid, but just making sure you have the same last name as your children can make a big difference. After I changed my surname, or when I used my daughter's surname in practice before  I had a court order, I was almost never asked any questions at all.

Also I want to point out that reality and facts and rules aren't necessarily relevant with the formation of birth certificates, but once they are written they are generally treated as carved in stone, towering edifices of information. It can be difficult to change them if you need to later, and even if you do, any court that needs to examine any details about you or your family will likely treat the oldest documents as the most valid.

I just realized all this only applies to the U.S. I have no clue what you might be facing if you live elsewhere.

I have four kids, and I don't remember anyone checking ID when I filled out the birth certificate forms.  All were in California.  And if I remember right, they brought us the forms to fill out, and my wife was too tired (obviously), so I took care of it.  Then a month or two later I went down to the courthouse to pick up the actual birth certificate.  And I think they actually did require ID to pick it up, so you might want to have your wife do it then.

So, just fill it out with your new name, and I doubt you'll have any issue. This is one of those things where asking too many questions can raise a red flag and then you'll have to deal with whatever the law is in your state.  Don't ask, don't tell, and you'll be fine.

And Felix is right, once on the birth certificate, it's very rare to have it changed.

And good luck with the twins!  Yikes!  :)

alright, i'll look it up the laws in my area of tenn online. thanks felix and katiej

Ah, you're in Tennessee.  My understanding is that you're in one of the states that still won't change gender marker on birth certificates.  So it's not likely they'd change anything else.  So if you can get your new name on there from the start, you'll be much better off.