# How Does One Legally Change Sex? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-legally-change-sex/594897 "2011-09-01T22:45:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-legally-change-sex/594897/41 "2011-09-09T19:36:55Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > That’s not really the point I was making. Some people apparently are saying that your gender is determined by your mind - gender is a function of the brain. So my question was if that’s the case why do we attach so much importance to the state of the body? If your brain says you’re a woman, then you’re a woman even if you’ve never taken a single step in any sexual reassignment procedure. Because you can’t tell someone has a male or female brain until they die and you cut them up. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I hardly think this is going to avoid the problem. What happens when Michael John Smith is asked to produce his high school diploma for a job application and the HR department sees he’s given them a diploma that was issued to Mary Jane Smith? > > Obviously, he’ll explain that he was a girl named Mary Jane Smith when he graduated from high school. And they’ll look at his birth certificate and say “Well, according to your birth certificate you were born a boy. How did you become a girl in school?” > > I think the best policy would be to acknowledge a change occurred. Smith was born a girl and went to school as a girl named Mary Jane. Then when he was thirty years old, he became a man named Michael John and that’s what he is now. People in that situation will show their gender reassignment certificate. It’s actually not that complicated. Uncomfortable, sometimes, but complicated, no. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-legally-change-sex/594897/42 "2011-09-09T19:48:00Z")
When was the last time anyone was asked to produce a \*diploma \*for a job? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-legally-change-sex/594897/43 "2011-09-09T19:56:03Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > When was the last time anyone was asked to produce a \*diploma \*for a job? > > Anyone? > > Anyone? > > Bueller? I have never. In the distant past, probably somewhere around 100 BC or so, I produced a college transcript when applying for an internship during a summer semester. I still have my physical degrees, but they are gathering dust rather than sitting in my briefcase ready to be shown to all and sundry. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-legally-change-sex/594897/44 "2011-09-09T20:13:05Z")
Pretty sure that when you’re proving you earned some degree, you don’t hand over your diploma, regardless. It’s going to be some kind of transcript or letter from the school, and I wouldn’t be surprised if those records are ones you can have your name changed in (and gender, if included). ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-legally-change-sex/594897/45 "2011-09-09T20:19:07Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Pretty sure that when you’re proving you earned some degree, you don’t hand over your diploma, regardless. It’s going to be some kind of transcript or letter from the school, and I wouldn’t be surprised if those records are ones you can have your name changed in (and gender, if included). It probably would take nothing more than a visit to the Registrar’s Office with your legal paperwork in hand. People change their names all the time and there has to be a procedure in place so that academic records can stay linked with people. They might not re-issue the actual physical diploma, or allow you to “walk” in cap and gown again and be addressed with your “new” identity, but the paperwork should link up somehow. My alma mater, at least at one time, had simple certification forms (1 8.5x11 Letter sheet) that stated your name and degree(s) issued by the school. E.g. “John David Smith, BA English, 1995, JD Law, 1999”, if all you needed was proof that you had a degree. I would suspect that they would issue that under your current legal name if you provide proof of name change. Of course, the standard transcripts were available as well. My mother went back to school after she got married and all her old transcripts were recorded under her maiden name - she didn’t have to go back and retake all her classes under her married name - they accepted the old transcripts. I don’t know if she amended the records or just provided a copy of the old transcripts and a copy of her marriage certificate to the grad school admissions department, but it worked out. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-legally-change-sex/594897/46 "2011-09-09T20:57:58Z")
The Virginia DMV had me submit medical reports to the state medical authority every so often for nearly 4 years after they gave me the F. Finally they decided they were satisfied, closed my case out, and have since left me alone. By the way, as for making you get divorced, they didn’t even ask whether I was married, let alone care. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-legally-change-sex/594897/47 "2011-09-09T21:41:43Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > It’s much less true for biological females who have taken male hormones - the voice will not go back to its original pitch, and body / facial hair will not return to a typical female distribution. Really, if one has been on hormones for years, it’s not reversible. Leaving aside the problem of the phrasing “biological female” another important change is that testosterone will irreversibly enlarge the clitoris, often to the point where its extremely prominent and microphallus-like in appearance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-legally-change-sex/594897.md?page=2)