The German Cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft bill that would add a third gender option to official identity records.

The bill allows intersexual people to register their gender as "divers," which translates roughly to "miscellaneous" or "other," and would come into force by the end of the year. Until now, people in a similar situation could only register without a gender.

The draft law follows a Constitutional Court ruling last year that found the current system violated a person's individual rights and anti-discriminatory laws.

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The court had ruled on a case in which a plaintiff with one X chromosome but no second sex chromosome had tried unsuccessfully to change their gender at a birth register from "female" to third category. Females have two X chromosomes, while males have one X and one Y chromosome.

The judges found that authorities must choose to either scrap gender identification altogether or allow people in a similar situation to choose "another positive designation of their sex that is not male or female."

SPD lawmakers hail decision

Wednesday's Cabinet decision still requires parliamentary approval before coming into force. However, Franziska Giffey, Germany's Social Democratic (SPD) minister for families, hailed the decision "an important step toward the legal recognition of people whose gender identity is neither male nor female."

Justice Minister Katarina Barley (SPD) also welcomed the draft bill, saying "it is long overdue that we finally modernize the Personal Statute Act" and that "no one may be discriminated against because of their sexual identity."

The Justice Ministry also indicated that it would draw up further laws aiming to get rid of other discriminatory regulations against intersexuals.

An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 people in Germany identify as intersex. This means they do not possess gender traits that are generally described as belonging to "male" or "female" people.

Statistically, an intersex child results from 1:1,500-1:2,000 births per year across the world.

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dm/kms (dpa, AP, KNA, epd)

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.</s>BERLIN — Germany's Cabinet on Wednesday approved a third gender option for official records that will allow people to be registered as "diverse," complying with a ruling from the country's highest court.

In November, the Federal Constitutional Court decided that people must be allowed to be entered in records as neither male nor female, ordering authorities either to create a third identity or scrap gender entries altogether.

It ruled on a case in which a plaintiff sought unsuccessfully to have their entry in the birth register changed from "female" to "inter/diverse" or "diverse." Until now, the only other option was to leave the gender blank.

During a three-year legal battle, the plaintiff provided a genetic analysis showing one X chromosome but no second sex chromosome. Women have two X chromosomes, while men have one X and one Y chromosome. The top court found that authorities could decide to do without any gender identity in civil registers or allow people in a similar situation to choose "another positive designation of their sex that is not male or female."

Wednesday's Cabinet decision to add a third gender option, "diverse," to the register of births requires parliamentary approval.

The center-left minister for families in Germany's conservative-led coalition government, Franziska Giffey, said it is "an important step toward the legal recognition of people whose gender identity is neither male nor female."

However, advocacy groups and some opposition politicians said it didn't go far enough.

"Why should you produce a doctor's certificate to change your civil status?" opposition Green party lawmakers Sven Lehmann and Monika Lazar asked in a joint statement. "That must be a self-determined decision that is open to all."

In neighboring Austria, the Constitutional Court ruled in June that authorities there must allow people to be entered in official records as something other than male or female if they so wish.

However, it found no need to change that country's existing law since it doesn't specify explicitly that people's gender must be male or female.

FOLLOW NBC OUT ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM</s>Aug. 15 (UPI) -- The German government on Wednesday approved a third gender option on official documents, allowing people to register as "divers."

The Cabinet settled on the label nine months after Germany's top court -- the Federal Constitutional Court -- ordered the creation of a third gender category. The court left the selection of the third term up to the government.

The ruling came after an intersex person, classified as neither man nor woman, filed a legal challenge after attempting to change their registered gender to "inter" or "divers." "Divers" equates to "miscellaneous" or "other" in English.

The court said the lack of a third option was discriminatory against intersex people.

The new option was expected to go into effect on official documents before the end of 2018.

Justice Minister Katarina Barley praised the approval, saying no one should be discriminated against because of their sexual identity.

"The introduction of a third sex option was overdue. This is about dignity and positive identity!" she tweeted.

The United Nations' Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner says according to experts between 0.5 percent and 1.7 percent of the global population is born with intersex traits that do not fit male or female bodies, including genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns.

"Being intersex relates to biological sex characteristics, and is distinct from a person's sexual orientation or gender identity," the U.N. office said in a fact sheet. "An intersex person may be straight, gay,lesbian, bisexual or asexual, and may identify as female, male, both or neither."

In 2013, Australia adopted the Sex Discrimination Amendment, the first law to include intersex status as a stand-alone prohibited ground of discrimination. The nation's Senate also banned involuntary or coerced sterilization of intersex people.

Earlier this year, California joined New York as the only states to allow residents who don't identify as male or female to change their birth certificates to match their gender identity.</s>Germany’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a third gender option for official records that will allow people to be registered as “diverse,” complying with a ruling from the country’s highest court.

In November, the Federal Constitutional Court decided that people must be allowed to be entered in records as neither male nor female, ordering authorities either to create a third identity or scrap gender entries altogether.

It ruled on a case in which a plaintiff sought unsuccessfully to have their entry in the birth register changed from “female” to “inter/diverse” or “diverse.” Until now, the only other option was to leave the gender blank.

During a three-year legal battle, the plaintiff provided a genetic analysis showing one X chromosome but no second sex chromosome. Women have two X chromosomes, while men have one X and one Y chromosome. The top court found that authorities could decide to do without any gender identity in civil registers or allow people in a similar situation to choose “another positive designation of their sex that is not male or female.”

READ MORE: B.C. baby first to get health card without gender marker

Wednesday’s Cabinet decision to add a third gender option, “diverse,” to the register of births requires parliamentary approval.

The center-left minister for families in Germany’s conservative-led coalition government, Franziska Giffey, said it is “an important step toward the legal recognition of people whose gender identity is neither male nor female.”

However, advocacy groups and some opposition politicians said it didn’t go far enough.

“Why should you produce a doctor’s certificate to change your civil status?” opposition Green party lawmakers Sven Lehmann and Monika Lazar asked in a joint statement. “That must be a self-determined decision that is open to all.”

In neighboring Austria, the Constitutional Court ruled in June that authorities there must allow people to be entered in official records as something other than male or female if they so wish.

However, it found no need to change that country’s existing law since it doesn’t specify explicitly that people’s gender must be male or female.

Canada has taken similar moves in the past, including a baby in British Columbia who recently became one of the world’s first to receive a health card without a gender marker.

Shortly after, a court ordered the government of Saskatchewan to allow the removal of gender markers on birth certificates, and a filmmaker in Ontario recently received a non-binary birth certificate after a drawn out legal battle.

By a slight majority however, Canadians remain uncomfortable with gender neutral birth certificates, according to a poll released by Angus Reid last July.</s>Last November, the Federal Constitution Court ruled that Germans must be allowed to be entered in records as neither male nor female, saying the records must either eliminate the category of gender or create "another positive designation of their sex that is not male or female," AP reported.

The ruling concluded a three-year legal battle involving an intersex person — someone whose sex characteristics do not fit standard definitions of either male or female — who used a karyotype analysis to prove that they had only one X chromosome but no other sex chromosome, a condition known as Turner Syndrome.

As a consequence of the ruling, parents will now have the option to register their newborns as "diverse" instead of male or female, and adults can voluntarily opt to change their gender to diverse on their legal records.

The Cabinet's decision must still be approved by parliament, The Hill notes.

Franziska Giffey, Germany's Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and representative of the Social Democratic Party in the government's ruling coalition, said the ruling is "an important step toward the legal recognition of people whose gender identity is neither male nor female," Pink News reported.

The Constitution Court of Austria, Germany's neighbor, ruled in June that people can be entered in official records as something other than male or female, if they so wish, but since Austrian law doesn't explicitly require that someone's legal gender be male or female, there was no need to write a new law for the change.

In May, Pakistan passed a sweeping civil rights law for transgender and third gender people that extended the right of legal recognition of khawaja sira, a third gender in Desi society, on all legal forms and identification, Sputnik reported.

A number of other countries have some form of third gender or gender x identification on legal forms as well, including Australia, New Zealand, India, Canada, Portugal, some US states and the District of Columbia, a federal district that houses the US capital.

However, many other cultures recognize a third gender and other non-binary genders as well, although they do not yet have legal status.</s>BERLIN — Germany’s Cabinet has approved a third gender option for official records that will allow people to be registered as “diverse,” complying with a Supreme Court ruling.

In November, the Federal constitutional Court decided that people must be allowed to be entered in records as neither male nor female, ordering authorities to create a third identity or scrap gender entries altogether.

It ruled on a case in which a plaintiff with one X chromosome but no second sex chromosome sought unsuccessfully to have their entry in the birth register changed from “female” to “inter/diverse” or “diverse.” Until now, the only other option was to leave the gender blank.

Wednesday’s Cabinet decision to add a third gender option, “diverse,” to the register of births requires parliamentary approval.</s>The German Cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft bill that would add a third gender option to official identity records.

The bill allows intersexual people to register their gender as "divers," which translates roughly to "miscellaneous" or "other," and would come into force by the end of the year. Until now, people in a similar situation could only register without a gender.

The draft law follows a Constitutional Court ruling last year that found the current system violated a person's individual rights and anti-discriminatory laws.

The court had ruled on a case in which a plaintiff with one X chromosome but no second sex chromosome had tried unsuccessfully to change their gender at a birth register from "female" to third category. Females have two X chromosomes, while males have one X and one Y chromosome.

The judges found that authorities must choose to either scrap gender identification altogether or allow people in a similar situation to choose "another positive designation of their sex that is not male or female."

Wednesday's Cabinet decision still requires parliamentary approval before coming into force. However, Franziska Giffey, Germany's Social Democratic (SPD) minister for families, hailed the decision "an important step toward the legal recognition of people whose gender identity is neither male nor female."

Justice Minister Katarina Barley (SPD) also welcomed the draft bill, saying "it is long overdue that we finally modernize the Personal Statute Act" and that "no one may be discriminated against because of their sexual identity."

The Justice Ministry also indicated that it would draw up further laws aiming to get rid of other discriminatory regulations against intersexuals.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.</s>BERLIN — Germany's Cabinet on Wednesday approved a third gender option for official records that will allow people to be registered as "diverse," complying with a ruling from the country's highest court.

In November, the Federal Constitutional Court decided that people must be allowed to be entered in records as neither male nor female, ordering authorities either to create a third identity or scrap gender entries altogether.

It ruled on a case in which a plaintiff sought unsuccessfully to have their entry in the birth register changed from "female" to "inter/diverse" or "diverse." Until now, the only other option was to leave the gender blank.

The plaintiff provided courts with a genetic analysis showing one X chromosome but no second sex chromosome. Women have two X chromosomes, while men have one X and one Y chromosome. The court found that authorities could decide to do without any gender identity in civil registers or allow people in a similar situation to choose "another positive designation of their sex that is not male or female."

Wednesday's Cabinet decision to add a third gender option, "diverse," to the register of births requires parliamentary approval.

The center-left minister for families in Germany's conservative-led coalition government, Franziska Giffey, said it is "an important step toward the legal recognition of people whose gender identity is neither male nor female."

In neighboring Austria, the Constitutional Court ruled in June that authorities there must allow people to be entered in official records as something other than male or female if they so wish, but found no need to change that country's existing law since it doesn't specify explicitly that people's gender must be male or female.</s>LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A new German third gender option does not go far enough, campaigners said on Thursday, after Berlin became the first European government to introduce the choice for intersex people.

Germany’s cabinet on Wednesday voted to introduce a third category of “divers,” or various, alongside male and female on birth certificates and other official documents, complying with a federal court ruling.

LGBT campaigners said the move did not go far enough and called for new laws to make it easier for people who do not identify with the gender they were born to change their sex on official documents.

“For trans people, nothing has changed regarding the obstacles they face to change their registered name and gender,” Markus Ulrich, a spokesman for the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The introduction of the new third gender category came after the Federal Constitutional Court called on lawmakers last year to enact legislation to either introduce a third category or dispense with gender altogether in official documents.

The ruling followed a court appeal brought by an intersex adult and said that courts and state authorities should no longer compel intersex people to choose between identifying as male or female.

In 2013, Germany became the first European country to recognize indeterminate sex by allowing babies born with no clear gender-determining anatomy to be put on the birth register without a male or female classification.

Richard Koehler, a policy advisor for Transgender Europe, said the new category would in theory require “invasive” tests to determine whether a person was intersex.

“Those who cannot or do not want to submit themselves to such invasive medicalization will remain excluded and without legal recognition. This is discriminatory,” he said.

Some campaigners however said the new law was a step in the right direction.

It makes Germany the first European country to allow the third option. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India and Nepal have already done so.

“It is a step in the right direction and we hope other states will follow,” said Moritz Prasse, the spokesman of the Third Option campaign group, which backed the original legal challenge.</s>Germany paves way for ‘third gender’ option at birth

BERLIN: The German government on Wednesday approved a draft law allowing a third gender option on birth certificates for babies who are not distinctly male or female.

In a move described by the justice minister as "long overdue", Chancellor Angela Merkel’s left-right coalition passed a bill permitting children born intersex to be registered as "various".

The measure follows a ruling by Germany’s top tribunal last November that current regulations on civil status are discriminatory against intersex people, noting that the sexual identity of an individual is protected as a basic right.

Germany has since 2013 allowed babies born with characteristics of both sexes to leave the gender options of male and female blank.

The Federal Constitutional Court gave parliament until the end of 2018 to amend the current legislation. The decision was in favour of an appeal brought by an intersex adult and said that courts and state authorities should no longer compel intersex people to choose between identifying as male or 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.
The Cabinet of Germany approves a third gender option for official identification records. The change will come into force by the end of the year.