Oops! Wrong Sex Assigned at Birth

From upcoming book "Gloriously Weird Gender in Tragically Weird Times."

Child with Eyes Closed. Picture by Freya Clark

Sex assigned at birth is one of the curious casualties of the current administration's DEI ban. I have a strange but true story about sex assigned at birth.

I became acutely aware of the importance of assigned sex when one of my children was assigned the wrong sex on her birth certificate. She was born with the biological sex of female. She was assigned male on her birth certificate. Interestingly, she was assigned female on the hospital certificate. So, I guess you could say she was assigned both male and female sex at birth!

None of this seemed like a particularly big deal at the time. Yet, every time I enrolled her in any activity that required a birth certificate, I had to prove that she was a real person.

Strange but True Story About the Wrong Sex Assigned at Birth

When I enrolled my daughter in preschool, I had to explain that, yes, she was indeed, female. In preschool, you can’t really tell gender by looking at a child. They all look more or less the same because they have not yet started to develop secondary sex traits. To show sex, parents might put a pretty pink ribbon on a girl baby and cute little boots on a boy baby. My daughter allowed for none of that poofery. She would wear only comfortable clothing, like little sweat pants and long sleaved t-shirts. No shoes. No ribbons. All of these items produced a magnificent temper tantrum.

Because of her outfits, people would assume she was a boy. The birth certificate said she was a boy. But her name is clearly female, and I used she/her pronouns. I had to explain the assignment error on her birth certificate. Then I showed them the other document from the hospital that assigned her female at birth. Finally, I said, “look, when you change her diapers, you will see that this child is female.”

When my daughter was around 6 years old, we were going to travel out of the country and she needed a passport. To get a passport, she needed an accurate birth certificate. I went to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Bureau of Vital Records with all of the proof I could find to get the birth certificate corrected. I told the person behind the glass barrier about the mistake. The woman looked at my daughter and said, “yep, she is clearly female. Let me fix that on the birth certificate." She did a few things on a computer, had me sign a document. I handed her a payment. My daughter was reassigned her birth sex.

What if This Error Happened Today?

Now many state lawmakers have passed laws stipulating that people assigned male sex at birth must use the men’s bathroom and people assigned female sex at birth must use the women’s bathroom. These laws are designed to prevent transgender people from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. Because my daughter was assigned male at birth, would she be legally required to use the boy’s/men’s restrooms at school? In airports? Shopping malls? While most states allow people to at least correct their gender assigned at birth on birth certificates, there are four states where there are no allowances for that type of change. If my daughter lived in Oklahoma, Montana, Tennessee, or West Virginia, she might be forced to retain her status as male.

I recognize that "DEI" is the new Red Scare, where everyone was accused of being a communist, but Damn people, can we never learn from our mistakes? Why must we make people's lives needlessly difficult? Again?

Debbie Dougherty is a Professor, Author, Consultant, and Farmer

Freya Clark is a gifted child artist who raises rabbits and plays sports.