Germany must allow third gender, court rules. 1.7 percent of the worlds population is intersex.

An intersex person has won a court case to allow them to enter a third gender into the registry of births. The case was appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court after failing at lower levels. Germany's Federal Constitutional Court on Wednesday called for a third gender option in the registry of births. Intersex people, who are neither male nor female, should be able to register their sexual identity as such, the Karlsruhe court ruled. The court found that the general right to the protection of personality in Germany's Basic Law meant the register had to be altered to allow a third gender. The court ruled seven to one that lawmakers must create new legislation by the end of 2018 to allow for a third sex, providing the examples of "intersex," "diverse" or another "positive designation of sex." Another possibility raised was to scrap gender entries altogether. The ruling could make Germany the first European country to allow a third gender on the birth registry. Since 2013, people have had the option of leaving the gender entry blank on the birth registry, but campaigners said this was not enough. The case was brought forward by an intersex person who had applied to change their gender to "inter" or "various" in the registry of births, in which they were registered as a girl. Chromosome analysis found they were neither male nor female. The case had failed at several other levels of the justice system, most recently at the Federal Court of Justice. An estimated 80,000 people in Germany identify as intersex, meaning they don't display the gender traits of people generally described as "male" or "female." Some intersex people have both testicles and ovaries; others do not produce the hormones that determine the common binary gender characteristics. This ruling now requires lawmakers to pass a new regulation by the end of 2018 that will provide a "positive gender entry" aside from male or female on birth certificates. Per BBC, that category could be called "inter" or "various." Some countries, like Australia, New Zealand, Nepal and India, already officially recognize those who identify as intersex. While the United States does not widely accept a third identification marker, California recently became the first U.S. state to legally recognize a third gender on official state documents, such as birth certificates. But not all authorities have sided with legal recognition. In May, France's top court ruled against a "neutral sex" gender. The New York Times reported that the decision said an official third gender would have "deep repercussions" on French law and require "numerous legislative changes." The United Nations estimates that between .05 and 1.7 percent of the world's population is intersex.