Freddy McConnell


Freddy Reuben McConnell is an English multimedia journalist. His journey to give birth as a trans man is detailed in the 2019 documentary Seahorse that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The documentary was directed by Jeanie Finlay.

Education and career

McConnell is from Deal, Kent and is a multimedia journalist for The Guardian. He has a 2:1 undergraduate degree in Arabic from the University of Edinburgh. He studied Arabic at a summer school at Middlebury College in the US in 2012, and worked for the NGO Skateistan in Kabul, Afghanistan for six months during 2011, transitioning in public while there.

Transition

Since childhood, McConnell experienced gender dysphoria. In 2010, at the age of 23, McConnell realized he was trans. He chose the names Freddy and Reuben after family members who lived in the 19th century. He began testosterone treatment in April 2014 and underwent top surgery a year later in Florida. He elected not to have a hysterectomy because of his possible interest in having children. He described his experience of transitioning in a series titled Self-made man during 2014-15.

Court case

McConnell gave birth to a son in 2018. In September 2019, McConnell lost a High Court application to be described as father or parent on his child's birth certificate. Reports suggest that English common law requires those that give birth to be described as mother on the child's birth certificate. This decision was later upheld at the Court of Appeal in April 2020.
Four British newspaper publishers, Telegraph Media Group, Associated Newspapers, News Group Newspapers and Reach PLC, successfully applied to have an anonymity order affecting the case removed in July 2019.