Jake and Hannah Graf are expecting their first child together
The couple will become the first parents in Britain who are both transgender
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
Jake and Hannah Graf are expecting their first child together – making them the first parents in Britain who are both transgender.
Captain Hannah Graf became the highest-ranking transgender woman in the British Army and married to transgender filmmaker Jake Graf after announcing their engagement back in 2017.
And now the couple have revealed they are to become parents of a baby girl in April, making them the first parents in Britain who are both transgender.
Speaking to the Mail Online, Hannah said: “Within a week of our first date Jake was asking if I wanted kids.
“He wouldn’t have taken the relationship further if I’d said ‘no’.
“I did want children but I never thought I’d end up having them. I thought I’d never have a boyfriend, let alone get married.”
Their daughter – who is being carried by a surrogate – is reportedly genetically linked to Jake by eggs he had harvested when he temporarily stopped taking testosterone for six months several years ago.
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He continued: “I’d been on testosterone for a good six years and I was very happy living as myself, but I didn’t want to miss out on kids and there was only one way I could be certain of being a father.
“So, I stopped taking testosterone for six months and went to a well-known London fertility clinic. They were very frank.
“They said they had no statistics to show how successful it was likely to be. They’d never done anything like it before.
“But they agreed to try to harvest some eggs and my dear mum, who had been super-supportive throughout my transitioning, paid the cost of the procedure — about £17,000 — because she knew I’d always dreamed of having children.”
The couple have faced criticism of using a surrogate from friends who said surrogacy was ‘utterly wrong’.
Jake said: “We had a very upsetting message from an old schoolfriend I hadn’t seen in 20 years who said she felt surrogacy was ‘utterly wrong’.
“Yet she was speaking as a mum fortunate enough to have three children, and we felt it wasn’t her business to comment.”
Hannah then added: “The trouble is, people have strong opinions about surrogacy, as they do about people being transgender, without taking the care to understand.”
According to Jake, people have criticised them saying they ‘want to raise a trans child’ but they say they want to ‘support other trans people’.
Their daughter is expected to be born in April next year.