Germany on Wednesday became the first European nation to offer birth registration options outside of traditional gender labels, The Telegraph reported.
The Federal Constitutional Court ruled that restricting identity registration to binary gender labels is discriminatory against individuals who do not fall in the categories of “male” or “female.”
The case was brought forward by an “intersex” individual, after many lower courts denied their request to include “inter” and “various” as identifiers at birth. The top court ruled in favor of the individual, who was registered as female at birth, despite a chromosomal analysis that revealed neither male nor female biology.
According to the Court’s Wednesday ruling, legislators must pass a new regulation by the end of 2018, which offers the third gender option of “intersex.”