COUNTRY’S TOP COURT STRENGTHENS INTERSEX IDENTITY RIGHTS GERMANY

BERLIN Germany’s highest court has decided that people must be allowed to be entered in official records as neither male nor female, saying in a ruling published on Wednesday t hat authorities s hould create a third identity or scrap gender entries altogether.

The Federal Constitutional Court ruled on a case in which a plaintiff, identified by advocacy group Dritte Option only as Vanja, born in 1989, sought to have their entry in the birth register changed from “female” to “i nter/ diverse” or “diverse.”

Officials rejected the application on the grounds that the law only allows for children to be registered as male or female, or for the gender to be left blank.

The plaintiff argued that that was a violation of their personal rights.

In a three- year legal battle, Vanja provided courts with a genetic analysis showing the plaintiff has one X chromosome but no second sex chromosome.

The supreme court found that the law protects sexual identity, which has a “key position” in how individuals perceive themselves and are perceived by others. The government has until the end of 2018 to draw up new rules.