A transgender woman who left her ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has been granted an appeal in her fight to gain access to her five children, Pink News reports.
The unnamed woman—who lived with her family in the Charedi Jewish community in Manchester—was denied contact with her kids earlier this year with Judge Peter Jackson ruling that there was a strong risk of “the children and their mother being marginalised or excluded by the ultra-Orthodox community” if visitation rights were granted.
The woman has not seen her children since she left the community over two years ago and has only been able to communicate with them via letters.
Judge Jackson said he reached his final conclusion with “real regret, knowing the pain that it must cause”.
“I can see no way in which the children could escape the adult reaction to them enjoying anything like an ordinary relationship with their father.
“In the final analysis, the gulf between these parents – the mother within the ultra-Orthodox community and the father as a transgender person – is too wide for the children to bridge.
“This outcome is not a failure to uphold transgender rights, still less a ‘win’ for the community, but the upholding of the rights of the children to have the least harmful outcome in a situation not of their making.”
The woman will now prepare for the appeal hearing—set for November 15 this year.
