‘Third gender’ allowed in Germany

GERMANY’S top court ordered parliament yesterday to recognise a third gender from birth, potentially making it the first European country to offer intersex people the option of identifying as someone other than a man or a woman.

The ruling, hailed as historic by Germany’s Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, marks a major shake-up for gender policies in Europe’s biggest economy, just a month after same-sex marriage was legalised.

Regulations were discriminatory against intersex people, the Federal Constitutional Court said, noting that sexual identity was protected as a basic right.

Politicians must pass a new regulation to offer a third gender option in birth registers by the end of the year, the court said, ruling in favour of an appeal brought by an intersex person.

In the meantime, courts and state authorities should no longer compel intersex people to choose between identifying as a man or woman, the court ruled.

The plaintiff had brought the appeal after several lower courts had ruled against a bid to introduce the gender options in the birth register.

The intersex person was registered as a woman, but a chromosome analysis found the plaintiff to be neither man or women.

Intersex is a broad term encompassing people who have sex traits, such as genitals or chromosomes, that do not entirely fit with a typical binary notion of male and female. Intersex people will have features that are neither wholly female nor wholly male, or a combination or neither.

Interior ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said the government was ready to implement the court ruling.

The Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency said it was a historic decision and urged politicians to do a comprehensive reform of the legislation to a modern gender identity law.

The call was echoed by the German Institute for Human Rights, which said the laws should be overhauled to improve legal protection and recognition of the diversity of physical gender developments, gender identities and gender expression.

Activist group Third Option called the ruling a small revolution in the gender area.