Non-binary: does the UK recognise a third gender?

A Dutch court has urged lawmakers to
recognise those who do not want to register as either male or
female

In Depth

The Limburg District Court in Roermond ruled that the unnamed
plaintiff could be recorded in the Dutch birth register as ‘gender
undetermined’ as opposed to male or female, reports The Daily Telegraph.

“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 court said.

In 2001, the plaintiff underwent medical treatment and changed
gender to female.

“Eventually it also turned out that the female gender did not
fit the person, whose personality is experienced as
gender-neutral,” the court said. This meant “feeling neither like a
man nor a woman”.

Due to “social and legal developments, the time is ripe for the
recognition of a third gender”, the judges said. A legal amendment
was crucial, they added, to enable the registration of a third
gender ‘X’.

What is non-binary?

The term describes any gender identity that does not fit the
male and female binary.

This can include but is not limited to: transsexuals (those who
do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth); intersex
people (those whose reproductive organs cannot be identified as
simply male or female) and transgender people (those who identify
as another gender but do not undergo medical procedures to change
their reproductive organs).

Does the UK recognise non-binary individuals in law?

The title Mx instead of Mr or Mrs is widely accepted in the UK
by government organisations and businesses as an alternative for
non-binary people, but UK law only recognises male and female
genders.

People can legally change their documented sex – but only to
male or female. Under the Gender Recognition Act 2004,
applicants have to be over 18, diagnosed with gender
dysphoria, have lived for at least two years in their acquired
gender and “intend to live permanently in their acquired
gender until death”.

In 2016, the House of Commons’s women and equalities committee
said the government must look into creating a legal category for
people with a non-binary gender identity. In response, the
Ministry of Justice announced in July 2017 that it would initiate a
public consultation. This has since stalled.

At the end of last year, the Scottish government released a
consultation paper proposing “a legally recognised third gender”
for people who do not identify as male or female,
reports The Independent.

What are the laws in other countries?

At the end of last year, Germany became the latest country to
recognise a third gender for intersex people.

They are already recognised on official documents in Australia,
India, New Zealand, Nepal and the US, where the first intersex
birth certificate was issued in 2016, reports the BBC.

In May 2017, France’s top appeals court ruled against offering a
“neutral” gender designation to a 66-year-old psychotherapist born
with neither a penis nor a vagina and officially registered as a
man.

The French court said the distinction between male and female
was a cornerstone of social and legal organisation, and that
recognising a third gender would involve “numerous legislative
changes”, the New York Times reported.