Germany Must Allow Third Gender Category, Court Rules
8, 2017
BERLIN — Germany must create a third gender category for people who do not identify as either male or female or were born with ambiguous sexual traits, the country’s constitutional court ruled on Wednesday, finding
that binary gender designations violated the right to privacy.
The 2013 German law that allowed parents the right not to designate their child as male or female was based on a set of recommendations by the German Ethics Council
that found that people who did not identify with a gender should not be forced to select one, and that people "people affected should be able to decide for themselves" about their gender.
"It also protects the sexual identity of those persons who are neither male nor female." Current laws
that require a person to register as either male or female interfere with that right and are discriminatory, the court found.
Moritz Schmidt said that For the first time in Germany, people who are neither male nor female are legally protected,
In 2013, Germany became the first European country to allow parents to register newborns
as neither female nor male, if the child was born with characteristics of both sexes.
According to Lambda Legal, an American organization
that works for the rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people, at least eight countries — Australia, Bangladesh, Germany, India, Malta, Nepal, New Zealand and Pakistan — recognize more than two genders on passports or national ID cards.
