Parents in Germany allowed to leave out gender in birth certificates
Starting November 1, parents in Germany will be allowed to leave their child’s gender blank on their birth certificates. Germany is the second country to loosen its gender categories after Australia allowed a third gender option, or “X,” on passports 2011.
Germany aims ease the pressure on parents to stick with a gender if their child is intersex, meaning their genitalia can’t be clearly identified as male or female.
“This will be the first time that the law acknowledges that there are human beings who are neither male nor female, or are both,” stated University of Bremen law professor Konstanze Plett to AFP. “People who do not fit into the traditional legal categories… We will have fellow human beings with no sex registered. They can’t be forced into either one of the traditional sexes in these other contexts.”
The German law reportedly states that if a child “cannot be assigned to the female nor the male gender,” their status “shall be entered without such information in the register of births.”
