Germany first in Europe to put third sex on birth certificates

GERMANY must recognise a ‘third gender’ for people who do not identify as either male or female on birth certificates, its highest court has ruled.

It would make it the first European country to offer intersex people the choice of identifying as neither male nor female. By the end of 2018, a new law must be passed offering an option to such people on birth certificates.

The Federal Constitutional Court ruled in favour of an appeal brought by an intersex person. They had been registered as female at birth, but a chromosome analysis found them to be neither male nor female. Intersex is a broad term for people who have sex traits, such as genitals or chromosomes, that do not fit with a typical notion of male and female.

Under current rules, Germany allows parents of such babies to leave the gender options of male and female blank.

According to the UN, between 0.05 and 1.7 per cent of the global population is intersex. Sometimes this is apparent at birth, at other times it becomes noticeable in puberty. Countries with official documents that recognise people as intersex include Australia, India, New Zealand and Nepal.