Dutch person becomes first to register as gender neutral in birth certificate

A Dutch citizen for the first time won the right to register as neither a male nor a female, with judges urging lawmakers to recognise a 'third gender'.

Roermond’s Limburg District Court ruled that the unnamed plaintiff can now be recorded in the Dutch birth register as 'gender undetermined' as opposed to male or female.

The judges said, “At birth in 1961, this person's gender could not be determined and the parents decided to register the person as male, to make things easier at the time,' the judges said. The plaintiff then in 2001 had an operation to and change their gender to female.”

The further added that eventually it also turned out that the female gender did not fit the person, whose personality is experienced as gender-neutral, feeling neither like a man nor a woman.

The plaintiff then asked authorities to include a third, gender-neutral entry in the birth register.

A similar request by a different person was turned down in 2007 by the Netherlands' highest court, the High Council.

The judges added that due to 'social and legal developments, the time is ripe for the recognition of a third gender.

An example was that Dutch railway NS now addresses travellers as 'passengers' rather than 'ladies and gentlemen' and added gender-neutral toilets.