Gender X: Germany to Allow Third Indeterminate Gender Option at Birth
Germany on Friday will become the first European country to allow babies born with characteristics of both sexes to be registered as neither male nor female.
Parents will be allowed to leave the field for gender blank on birth certificates, effectively creating a category for indeterminate sex in the public register.
“This will be the first time that the law acknowledges that there are human beings who are neither male nor female, or are both — people who do not fit into the traditional legal categories,” University of Bremen law professor Konstanze Plett told AFP.
The change is intended to remove pressure on parents to quickly make a decision about controversial sex assignment surgeries for newborns.
But even as the law takes effect November 1, there are questions about what it will mean to live with no legal gender.
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