German court rules in favour of third gender category

Germany's top court on Wednesday ordered parliament to recognise a "third gender" from birth, potentially making it the first European country to offer intersex people the option of identifying as something other than male or female.

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.

Current regulations on civil status are discriminatory against intersex people, the Federal Constitutional Court said, noting that the sexual identity of an individual is protected as a basic right.

Legislators must by the end of 2018 pass a new regulation to offer a third gender option in birth registers, the court added, 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 male or female, said the top court.

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

Government "ready to implement" order

The intersex person was registered as female, but a chromosome analysis found the plaintiff to be neither male nor female.

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.

So intersex people would have features that are neither wholly female nor wholly male, or a combination or neither.

Berlin pledged to follow through with the ruling, with interior ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth saying that the government "stands ready to implement it".

The Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency called the court ruling a "historic decision for intersex people" and urged lawmakers to "carry out a comprehensive reform of current legislation towards a modern gender identity law."