Third gender law | |
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German Bundestag | |
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Citation | Gesetz zur Änderung der in das Geburtenregister einzutragenden Angaben |
Territorial extent | Germany |
Passed by | German Bundestag |
Passed | 13 December 2018 |
Passed by | German Bundesrat |
Passed | 14 December 2018 |
Signed by | President Frank Walter Steinmeier |
Signed | 18 December 2018 |
Commenced | 22 December 2018 (5 years ago) |
Legislative history | |
First chamber: German Bundestag | |
Introduced | 1 October 2018 |
First reading | 11 October 2018 |
Second reading | 13 December 2018 |
Third reading | 13 December 2018 |
Second chamber: German Bundesrat | |
Received from the German Bundestag | 14 December 2018 |
Passed | 14 December 2018 |
Summary | |
German federal law on the enabling of a third positive gender entry | |
Status: In force |
Germany'sthird gender law introduced the gender "diverse" (German : divers) as a third positive option in alternative to "female", "male" or without an entry in the German civil status register. [1]
The law, codified in § 45b and § 22 PStG (German : Personenstandsgesetz), laid down an administrative procedure for assigning a diverse gender. It required a doctor's note confirming "a variant of sex development". The diverse gender can be assigned to people listed in the register, at birth or later in life. When individuals change their legal gender later in life, they can also change their first name. [2]
The administrative process was officially aimed at intersex people, but nonbinary people (who were not intersex) have also tried to use it, due to its manageable burden compared to the gender entry change procedure for trans people at that time (Transsexuals Act). However, the Federal Court of Justice ruled on 22 April 2020 that § 45b could not be used by a nonbinary person who was not intersex. [3]
The third gender law took effect on 22 December 2018. A bill to ease the process for transgender, intersex and non-binary non-intersex people, the Self-Determination Act, was passed on April 12, 2024, and took effect in November 2024. It completely revised § 45b PStG and standardised the regulations for trans, inter and non-binary people in a single law. [4]
Germany established a third positive gender option because, on 10 October 2017, the Federal Constitutional Court's ruled that it was constitutionally necessary. The court decided that it was unconstitutional to refuse a third positive gender option for people "not clearly identifiable" as female or male, [5] [6] citing Articles 1, 2, and 3 of the German constitution. [7] This ruling came in response to a constitutional complaint by Vanja, an at the time 26-year-old intersex person from Leipzig. Vanja had sued his [8] way up to the constitutional court. [9]
The constitutional court ruling for the right to a third gender came shortly after federal elections in 2017. The elections led to the formation of a grand coalition of Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and the Christian Social Union. The coalition agreement was signed on 12 March 2018, and Horst Seehofer (Christian Social Union) became minister of the interior. [10]
Minister Seehofer's legal draft provided for the third gender to be called "other" (German : anderes). However, justice minister Katarina Barley and family minister Franziska Giffey, both of the social democrats, blocked this proposal. In their view, "other" was disparaging. Barley favoured "further" (German : weiteres) while Giffey preferred "inter/diverse" (German : inter/divers). [11]
The government draft, hashed out within the grand coalition, settled on a third gender entry called German : divers, as well as an option for an empty gender entry. [10]
In 2021, an online form created to book covid vaccination appointments around Cologne and Dusseldorf [12] mistakenly offered users to declare their gender as German : Taucher, a literal translation of the English "divers" as in "people who dive". The booking form was made by the regional public doctors' association German : Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Nordrhein. [13] [14]
The word cisgender describes a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth, i.e., someone who is not transgender. The prefix cis- is Latin and means on this side of. The term cisgender was coined in 1994 as an antonym to transgender, and entered into dictionaries starting in 2015 as a result of changes in social discourse about gender. The term has been and continues to be controversial and subject to critique.
Diver or divers may refer to:
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in Germany rank among the highest in the world; having evolved significantly over the course of the last decades. During the 1920s and the early 1930s, lesbian and gay people in Berlin were generally tolerated by society and many bars and clubs specifically pertaining to gay men were opened. Although same-sex sexual activity between men was already made illegal under Paragraph 175 by the German Empire in 1871, Nazi Germany extended these laws during World War II, which resulted in the persecution and deaths of thousands of homosexual citizens. The Nazi extensions were repealed in 1960 and same-sex sexual activity between men was decriminalized in both East and West Germany in 1968 and 1969, respectively.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in Austria have advanced significantly in the 21st century, and are now considered generally progressive. Both male and female forms of same-sex sexual activity are legal in Austria. Registered partnerships were introduced in 2010, giving same-sex couples some of the rights of marriage. Stepchild adoption was legalised in 2013, while full joint adoption was legalised by the Constitutional Court of Austria in 2016. On 5 December 2017, the Austrian Constitutional Court decided to legalise same-sex marriage, and the ruling went into effect on 1 January 2019.
Intersex people are born with sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, gonads, or genitals, that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies."
Intersex people are born with sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, gonads, or genitals that, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies".
Intersex people are born with sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, gonads, or genitals that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies". "Because their bodies are seen as different, intersex children and adults are often stigmatized and subjected to multiple human rights violations".
Multiple countries legally recognize non-binary or third gender classifications. These classifications are typically based on a person's gender identity. In some countries, such classifications may only be available to intersex people, born with sex characteristics that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies."
Intersex people are born with sex characteristics that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) than endosex people. According to a study done in Australia of Australian citizens with intersex conditions, participants labeled 'heterosexual' as the most popular single label with the rest being scattered among various other labels. According to another study, an estimated 8.5% to 20% experiencing gender dysphoria. Although many intersex people are heterosexual and cisgender, and not all of them identify as LGBTQ+, this overlap and "shared experiences of harm arising from dominant societal sex and gender norms" has led to intersex people often being included under the LGBT umbrella, with the acronym sometimes expanded to LGBTI. Some intersex activists and organisations have criticised this inclusion as distracting from intersex-specific issues such as involuntary medical interventions.
The following is a timeline of intersex history.
Intersex people in the United States have some of the same rights as other people, but with significant gaps, particularly in protection from non-consensual cosmetic medical interventions and violence, and protection from discrimination. Actions by intersex civil society organizations aim to eliminate harmful practices, promote social acceptance, and equality. In recent years, intersex activists have also secured some forms of legal recognition. Since April 11, 2022 US Passports give the sex/gender options of male, female and X by self determination.
Intersex people in Germany have legal recognition of their rights to physical integrity and bodily autonomy, with exceptions, but no specific protections from discrimination on the basis of sex characteristics. In response to an inquiry by the German Ethics Council in 2012, the government passed legislation in 2013 designed to classify some intersex infants as a de facto third category. The legislation has been criticized by civil society and human rights organizations as misguided.
Transgender rights in the Federal Republic of Germany are regulated by the Transsexuellengesetz since 1980, and indirectly affected by other laws like the Abstammungsrecht. The law initially required transgender people to undergo sex-reassignment surgery in order to have key identity documents changed. This has since been declared unconstitutional. The German government has pledged to replace the Transsexuellengesetz with the Selbstbestimmungsgesetz, which would remove the financial and bureaucratic hurdles necessary for legal gender and name changes. Discrimination protections on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation vary across Germany, but discrimination in employment and the provision of goods and services is in principle banned countrywide.
Intersex people in Switzerland have no recognition of rights to physical integrity and bodily autonomy, and no specific protections from discrimination on the basis of sex characteristics. In 2012, the Swiss National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics published a report on the medical management of differences of sex development or intersex variations.
Franziska Giffey is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who is serving as Berlin State Senator for Economy, Energy and Enterprise since 2023. She served as Governing Mayor of Berlin from December 2021 to April 2023. She previously served as Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 until 2021. From 2015 to 2018, she was the mayor of the borough of Neukölln in Berlin.
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBTQ rights that took place in the year 2019.
Alex Jürgen is an Austrian intersex activist. Jürgen was the first person in Austria to receive a birth certificate and passport with legal recognition of non-binary gender after having fought for it in court.
The 2021 Berlin state election, ruled invalid in 2022 and repeated in 2023, was held on 26 September 2021, on the same day as the 2021 German federal election, which also had to be repeated in parts of Berlin due to irregularities. Thus, the 19th Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin was elected twice.
The law on self-determination with regard to gender entry, unofficially also called the Self-Determination Act is intended to make it easier for transgender, intersex and non-binary people in Germany to have their gender entry and first name changed.
The Transsexuals Act was a German federal law that allowed people who did not feel they belonged to their gender to change their first name and gender in their civil status.
mittlerweile zieht er ein männliches Bild von sich vor.