“Now I’m a mother too”
Father changes gender over custody battle
Curious case from Ecuador: A man changed his gender there. But not because he sees himself as a woman, but because he wants to win the custody battle.
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René Salinas Ramos from Ecuador is now officially a woman.
This custody battle is tough. As “Vice” reports, René Salinas Ramos (47) from Ecuador officially changed his gender to take care of his two girls. Instead of male, his passport now says female.
And this despite the fact that he has no intention of undergoing a sex change operation. It was solely the conviction that mothers are usually given preference when it comes to child custody issues that made him officially go through life as a woman in the future.
“In this country, being a father is punished and I’m only seen as a provider,” Ramos told local media.
«From this moment on I am a woman»
The father finally wants to hug his little daughters again. They are currently living with their mother, where they are said to be exposed to an abusive environment. He hasn’t seen his girls for more than five months. “The laws say that women have the right to do so. From this moment on I am a woman. Now I’m a mother too, that’s how I see myself, »said Ramos in December in front of the registry office in the city of Cuenca in the south of the country.
The sudden transition to womanhood and the motivations are causing a stir in the LGBTQ movement. The English abbreviation LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer.
For years they had campaigned for such a law to exist for true trans citizens. And now someone comes and takes advantage of it shamelessly. The Ecuadorian association of LGBTQ organizations described Ramos’ actions as “outrageous”.
“Now we’re scared”
“This man’s private matter of obtaining custody of his daughters does not conform to the spirit of the law,” says trans activist Diane Rodríguez (40) to “Vice”. At first she thought it was fake news. “Now we’re afraid that we’ll go backwards and they’ll start making laws against us,” she said.
As “Vice” continues to write, Ramos is an isolated case. He is the first man to use the law just to gain an advantage in a custody battle. It remains to be seen whether Ramos’ plan will work out. As the father told Jam Press, his daughters will stay with their mother until the matter is resolved. (dzc)