Google – AFP, Carolyn Beeler (AFP), 30 October 2013
A new born
baby takes the finger of its mother after the delivery on September 17,
2013 at
the Lens hospital in northern France (AFP/File, Philippe Huguen)
|
Berlin —
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.
A premature
newborn lies on a cot in
the neo-natal ward of the Delafontaine
hospital in
Saint Denis near Paris on
March 19, 2013 (AFP/File, Joel Saget) |
German
passports, which currently bear an "M" for male or "F" for
female, will soon be allowed to have an "X" in the gender field,
according to a spokesman for the interior ministry.
According
to Plett, a specialist in human rights for intersex people, regulations for
other personal documents will need to follow suit.
"We
will have fellow human beings with no sex registered," Plett said. "They
can't be forced into either one of the traditional sexes in these other
contexts."
Lawmakers
have yet to make clear how the change will impact marriage and partnership
laws.
In Germany,
marriage is reserved for a man and a woman, and civil partnerships are reserved
for two people of the same sex.
The law's
narrow focus is targeted at parents of newborns and "is not adequate to
fully resolve the complex problems of intersex people", including marriage
and civil partnerships, according to the interior ministry spokesman.
A more
immediate concern for intersex advocates is how children "outed" at
birth will fare in a world that operates largely on a gender binary.
"Schools
have toilets for boys and toilets for girls. Where will the intermediate child
go?" said Silvan Agius, policy director at ILGA Europe, a lesbian, gay,
bisexual, trans and intersex rights group.
"There
are separate sports activities for boys and for girls, and so many other things
like this," Agius said.
"The
law doesn't change that. It does not immediately create a space for intersex
people to be themselves."
Europe lags
behind on gender identity rights, Agius said.
Earlier
this year Australia began allowing individuals to identify as intersex on
personal documents, and added gender identity as a protected category under
federal anti-discrimination laws.
The German
law follows a 2012 report by the Ethics Council, an independent body of
experts, concluding that people with 'Differences of Sex Development' suffer in
the face of "widespread societal ignorance" and "a lack of
respect on the part of the medical profession."
Personal
testimony from the report quoted a subject born in 1965 with no clear
gender-defining genitalia who was castrated as an infant without parental
consent.
"I am
neither a man nor a woman," the person said.
"I
will remain the patchwork created by doctors, bruised and scarred."
Experts
estimate the population of intersex people at one in 1,500 to 2,000 births. But
advocates say the number is much larger partly due to difficulties in defining
intersexuality physically or hormonally.
The new law
has already raised the profile of this small population, which could prompt
increased awareness, but, some fear, could also trigger discrimination.
"It is
an absolute must that parents, teachers and doctors be educated about the lives
of intersex people," said Lucie Veith, head of an intersex support group
in Germany.
"The
government must take measures to ensure that no children are discriminated
against because of this new law."
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