Germany has become the first European country to allow babies born with characteristics of both genders to be registered as neither male nor female, according to the Associated Foreign Press.
This change in policy is to allow parents the freedom to leave the field blank on newborns birth certificates, allowing for a category of indeterminate.
"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," Konstanze Plett, a law professor from the University of Bremen told the Associated Foreign Press.
The purpose of the change is to remove the pressure put on parents to make a decision regarding controversial sex assignment surgeries that are performed on newborns that are born an indeterminate gender.
The law went into effect on November 1, leading to new questions regarding what it will mean to live without an assigned gender. Passports currently require an 'M' or 'F' for gender, but will soon also allow 'X' to accommodate the new law, according to a spokesman for the interior ministry.
Regulations for other personal documents will need to follow suit, according to Plett, who is a specialist in human rights for intersex people.
"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."
There is currently nothing in place regarding any effects the new law will have on marriage and partnership laws. In Germany, marriage is currently reserved for a man and a woman, with civil partnerships available for same sex couples.
The law "is not adequate to fully resolve the complex problems of intersex people," the interior ministry spokesman said.
A more imminent issue is the effects the new law will have on children that are going through life with no determined gender in a society that runs on gender basis.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
