Sometimes, parents stress about finding the perfect baby name. Some may even wait until the child is born to name them so they can see their appearance first. Other families wait days or weeks before they settle on the perfect moniker. Parents sometimes even realize they don’t like the name they originally chose and later legally change it on their baby’s birth certificate.
It can be a bit of a pain, but we can normally correct birth certificate errors in the United States. Otherwise, most people’s birth certificates remain the same for their entire lives.
A couple in the United Kingdom, however, found out that in their country that changing essential details on birth certificates isn’t so easy. In fact, it’s not possible. A registrar allegedly misgendered their baby on her birth certificate, and now they can’t change it.
The Guardian reported that Ewan Murray and Grace Bingham welcomed daughter Lilah, a few weeks ago, and she filled their hearts with joy. When they went to register Lilah at Sutton-in-Ashfield Registration Office in Nottinghamshire, England, they found the registrar had marked her as male and not female. They soon realized they cannot fix the error and that her official birth certificate will always say she’s a male.
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The parents didn’t realize the mistake until after they submitted the paperwork.
Life with a newborn can be exhausting, and it’s not surprising that the parents didn’t notice the registrar’s error. They assumed she’d correctly marked Lilah as female, but that wasn’t the case.
“We were horrified but assumed that, as we saw the mistake just a few seconds after it had happened, correcting it would be an easy matter,” Murray told the Guardian. “But although the registrar apologised for her mistake – and the area manager also apologised – it turns out that birth certificates can’t be changed.”
It seems no one can help the family.
The Guardian reported that the General Register Office, or GRO, confirmed it cannot reissue Lilah’s birth certificate. The only thing it can do is note the mistake in the margin. Her mother said that was not enough for her.
“People reading a birth certificate might easily miss a tiny note in the margin – which means that Lilah could be regarded as male when she applies for school, her passport, for jobs – for everything that she needs a full birth certificate for,” she said.
She added it could cause trouble for her daughter later in life when it comes to her gender identity.
Bingham added, “I just feel so guilty. I’m in tears all the time. I’m completely torn up over it.”
The registrar believes the blame lies with the parents.
The register office told The Guardian that the parents should have been more careful before submitting Lilah’s paperwork. The GRO may have made the error, but the agency claimed the parents should have noticed it.
“The duty to ensure that information recorded in any particular entry is true is the responsibility of the person providing the information and not of the registrar general or the registrar recording the birth,” the GRO explained. “By law, a full certificate must be an exact duplicate of the registration to which it relates,” it asserted.
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The parents face an uphill legal battle.
It is apparently unlawful to make any changes after issuing a birth certificate, and Lilah’s parents are out of luck.
Murray can’t believe it. “I just don’t think a correction in the margin is good enough,” he said, per the news outlet. “It’s horrifying that my daughter’s got to have male on her birth certificate when she’s a biological female. I can’t believe this accident is irreversible.”
The couple hired Lee Anderson to represent them and fight what they feel is an unjust system.
“There’s obviously something wrong with the system,” Anderson said. “Where’s the common sense in this? I can’t think of any other form you can fill out anywhere in this country that can’t be changed. This little girl is going to have male on her birth certificate for the rest of her life under the law as it stands and that’s just ridiculous.”
