The German parliament approved a ‘third gender’ identity, allowing people to identify themselves as “diverse” on official documents instead of the usual male or female option. The new law introduced by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition has been passed by both chambers of German Bundestag, with the upper house adopting it on Friday.
The legislation is an outcome of a judicial campaign that ended with the country’s top constitutional court ordering the parliament to create a third gender option. In November 2017, the court ruling had recommended the introduction of “another positive designation of … sex that is not male or female.”
Members of Merkel’s cabinet welcomed the move. The law was “an important step towards the legal recognition of people whose gender identity is neither male nor female,” Family Minister Franziska Giffey said.
Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) was the only political party to came out openly against the new law. “Which gender you belong to has been an objective fact since the beginning of time — just like age and height,” said party’s parliamentary group leader Beatrix von Storch.
German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported the passing of the new legislation in the Bundestag:
Germans will soon be able to choose a third gender on the register of births, with “diverse” set to become an option.Up until now, people had to choose between “male” and “female” when giving their gender, or leave the option blank.But following a vote in the German parliament late on Thursday intersex people — people whose sexual anatomy does not fit the typical definitions of male and female — will be allowed to change their entry to “diverse.”The “third gender” option places Germany in line with other countries that have introduced measures to recognize intersex people or a third gender, such as Austria, Australia, New Zealand, India, Canada and Portugal.
Writing for the Deutsche Welle, a commentator complained that the new law does not go far enough as it “does not make using public bathrooms easier for intersex and gender nonconforming people” or exempt them from “uncomfortable physical searches while going through security at airports and other checkpoints,” something they were being singeld out for.
Germany’s ecological Green Party wants the gender identity to be a matter of free choice and not restricted to person’s anatomy. Party’s parliamentary chief, Anton Hofreiter, lamented the fact that changing one’s gender in Germany still required a doctor’s certificate. A medical examination in the matter was “preposterous and a sign of distrust of those who don’t fit into an old-fashioned view of society,” he said.
Germany’s Lesbian and Gay Association (LSVD) decried the medical determination of gender as a “degrading assessments” and called for it to be abolished. “[G]ender is not only defined physical signs, but also by social and psychological factors,” LSVD said, agreeing with the Green Party’s position.
German Left, crying foul over the injustice inflicted by ‘misgendering’, has been eerily silent about the growing number of violent attacks by newly arrived Arab and Muslim migrants against homosexuals in Berlin and other cities. For the Left, appeasing migrants trumps gay rights.
The leftists are not only sore losers, as the aftermath of the Brexit vote and Trump’s victory have amply demonstrated, they aren’t any better at winning either. Every victory for them is just another opportunity for more grievance-mongering and moving the goalpost further. For the radicals on the Left, the struggle isn’t about ensuring fairness or securing equal rights. It’s about destroying the norms and institutions rooted in the Western history and tradition: a precondition for their magical post-modern Socialist utopia to emerge.
[Cover image via YouTube]
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