Hey Dr Sue — Is The Sex You Are Assigned At Birth Your Permanent Government Sex?

No, it’s not.

Two things I want to point out before I explain things.

First, I want to be really specific here and say that I’m talking about states and territories in the United States. The laws are going to be different in other countries.

Second, sex and gender are not the same thing! But a lot of times people use them interchangeably, and that definitely happens when we’re talking about official documents.

In many states in the US, when a baby is born it is assigned either “male” or “female” at birth. Sometimes the doctor may include things like the baby’s chromosomes or internal reproductive organs to make the decision about the baby’s sex. But most often it’s just based off what the doctor can see for the external reproductive organs after the baby is born.

If the doctor sees a vulva, then it’s usually assigned female. If they see a penis, then usually the baby is assigned male.

But it’s not that simple. There’s a range of how genitals may look at birth. Maybe there’s a penis, but ovaries and no testicles. There’s also the possibility that the chromosomes are something different than XX or XY. Like XXY or XYY. Or maybe the chromosomes are XY, which is what we usually think of…