Membership record gender status

[sturgesfamily]

We have a sister in our YSA ward, whose membership record has her listed as a male. How do we get that corrected?

[eblood66]

Send a Special Request in MLS (Membership > Records > Special Requests from the menu) or call Local Unit Support.

[sbradshaw]

I would add a note, in small print. Most likely it's just a clerk error when the member's record was created, but be cautious – especially if the member has recently moved into your ward (which is likely in a Young Single Adult environment). I don't want to change this thread into a political or doctrinal discussion, but because of today's social issues, I expect we'll see more instances of people – even members of the church – deciding that their gender does not match their birth certificate, and that will require extra attention on the part of clerks. From what I understand, current church policy is that the membership record match the birth certificate – although, this area of recordkeeping policy hasn't been defined very well yet. I'm assuming the member is a convert – if not, it would raise a red flag for the member to have attended church for 18+ years without this being noticed.

[russellhltn]

but be cautious – especially if the member has recently moved into your ward (which is likely in a Young Single Adult environment).

Good point. If she was just baptized, I can see this being a clerical error. But had she been a member for some time, it would certainly raise some flags. (Such as appearing on the list of unordained.) I certainly can't see it going unnoticed as a YW. Once in SLC's computers, it's not going to change accidentally due to a move-out.

It might be worth having the bishop call the prior ward to find out more information.

[sturgesfamily]

Valid points that I also thought about, and wanted to make sure I worded my question correctly. She was baptized just about a year ago, and is a Marine. She is originally from Honduras. I figured that the Marine Corps isn't likely to be a place that accepts gender change very easily.

[sbradshaw]

Ah, in this case, I'll bet an English speaker in the mission office in Honduras saw "M" on the Baptism and Confirmation Record and thought it stood for Male, instead of Mujer ("woman" in Spanish), or saw a "H" and assumed it stood for Hombre ("man") but it really meant Hembra ("female"). Translation is fun!

[russellhltn]

She was baptized just about a year ago,

Ah, then it's probably just a error. Depending on how long she was in the prior ward, they may not have caught that.