In an effort to secure custody of his two young girls after an acrimonious divorce, a father has officially changed his gender identity.
René Salinas Ramos, 47, is now designated as female on official records in his home country of Ecuador, despite the fact that he continues to identify as a cisgender man in daily life.
The distraught father said he took the extreme choice because the legal system in his nation favoured moms in custody cases.
“Being a father in this country, Ecuador, is punished and I’m only seen as a provider,” Ramos told local outlet told La Voz del Tomebamba. “What I have been looking for is to give the love and protection that a mother can give her children.”
Ramos stated his girls are presently living in an abusive environment with their mother, and that he hasn’t seen them in over five months.
“The laws say that the one who has the right is the woman. As of this moment, I am female. Now I’m also a mom, that’s how I consider myself,” Ramos told media assembled outside the city of Cuenca’s Civil Registry office on December 30. “I am very sure of my sexuality. What I have sought is that I want to be a mother, so that I can also give the love and protection of a mother.”
However, his actions have infuriated campaigners around the nation who battled arduously to reform the legislation for transgender individuals who are real. Earlier this week, the Ecuadorian Federation of LGBTI Organizations issued a statement condemning Ramos’ “outlandish” acts.
“This man’s private matter, to obtain custody of his daughters, isn’t the spirit of the law,” prominent trans activist Diane Rodríguez, Ecuador’s first trans Assembly member and national director of the Ecuadorian Federation of Organizations LGBTI, told VICE World News.
Rodríguez also told the media that she first believed this to be “fake news,” but now “we are afraid that in the Assembly things will go backwards and they will start legislating against us.”
The custody dispute between the father and his ex-wife continues.
“Until this matter is resolved, [the children] have to stay with their mother,” Ramos said, Jam Press reported. “The law is taking away our right to be parents. [Changing my official documents] is a proof of love.”
Ramos is the first recorded instance of a man in Ecuador using the change-of-gender rules to gain an advantage in a custody fight.
State-by-state, trans citizens’ efforts to alter their gender identification vary in the United States.
Bankrate reports that transgender people may legally alter their gender on their driver’s licences in all 50 states, but the procedure can be difficult. Some states need an update to the birth certificate and evidence of gender-affirming surgery.
Following a protracted court struggle, Montana became the latest state to allow transgender persons to alter the gender on their birth certificates last September.
In California, a father alleges he lost custody of his transgender son after questioning his gender identification.
In a related case, a Texas jury decided against a father who sought custody of his twin 7-year-old sons in an effort to prevent one of them from undergoing gender transition.
»Father changes his gender identity after a nasty divorce to gain custody of his two daughters«