'Our baby girl is legally a boy because of birth certificate mistake'

A young Nottinghamshire couple say their baby girl is legally a boy after the wrong sex was mistakenly put on her birth certificate. Ewan Murray and Grace Bingham say they have been unable to amend the "devastating" error on five-week-old Lilah's records despite getting in touch with national registration bosses.

“It’s a nightmare, it’s destroyed me," said 20-year-old Ms Bingham. "I have been non-stop crying, it’s not something you ever expect to happen."

Her partner Mr Murray, 21, said the only suggested fix was to put a note at the bottom of the certificate saying 'male changed to female'. “I don’t think it’s good enough," said the Tesco shift leader.

“It looks like a transgender baby. It sounds like she was born a boy and we’ve decided to make her a female at five weeks old." The Home Office has been contacted for comment.

The mistake occurred when the new parents went to register Lilah's birth at Sutton-in-Ashfield Registration Office on Wednesday, November 13. “They ask a lot of questions but never the child’s gender because they’re given to them by the hospital notes on the screen," explained Mr Murray.

"We didn’t even think to check the gender box which is our responsibility partially. The [registrar] responsible has taken full responsibility for it. We were still in the office when we figured it out."

The couple, from Kirkby-in-Ashfield, have since tried contacting Nottinghamshire Register Offices and the General Register Office to no avail. “At the moment our five-week-old daughter is, according to the government, a male," said Mr Murray.

"We’ve had to register her to the doctors and for child benefits as a boy. She’s been failed by the system already and she’s only five weeks old.

“It was devastating, she was our first child. It’s unacceptable that she’ll have a male birth certificate for the rest of her life. It’s not going to be good when she applies for a passport, gets married or applies for a job."

Ms Bingham added: “I don’t have a son, I have a daughter. I don’t feel we have been treated fairly.

"I feel it’s been brushed under the carpet. I’m not stopping until she’s got a female on her birth certificate.”