The Court of Appeal has ruled that it was wrong to deny a transgender father direct contact with her children.

The case involved a father who had been shunned by her ultra-orthodox Jewish community because she had started living as a transgender person. The court heard that the children would face ostracism if there was direct contact.

The judge ruled that the potential harm to the children from such ostracism meant there could be no direct contact, even though that could damage their relationship with their father.

The Court of Appeal has now overturned that decision. It held that it was the court’s duty to judge the child’s welfare by the standards of reasonable men and women of the day.

This meant taking into account the ever-changing nature of the world, including changes in social attitudes, and remembering that the reasonable man or woman was receptive to change, broad-minded, tolerant, easy-going and slow to condemn.

Society required people to be treated equally and their human rights to be respected.

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