March 21, 2018

New Belgian Gender Recognition Act: shouldn’t self-determination also include non-binary people?

March 21, 2018/ Tom Daly

Pieter Cannoot

The new Belgian Gender Recognition Act (GRA) entered into force on 1 January 2018. The Act was welcomed by many trans people, activists and other experts. It enabled trans people to apply for legal gender recognition on the basis of self-determination, not pathologizing conditions. The impact of the Act has been overwhelming: in many municipalities the number of applications in January 2018 was much higher than in the whole of 2017.

February 13, 2018

The Politics of Recognition and Emancipation Through Law

February 13, 2018/ Tom Daly

Grietje Baars

There is much to celebrate about the BVerfG decision. Intersex erasure is a serious issue, and 2017 could go down in history as the year intersex reached a tipping point of visibility: supermodel Hanne Gaby Odiele came out as intersex in the US Teen Vogue, generally intersex activism is being noticed by the media around the world, and now Vanja has won the Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVerfG).

February 07, 2018

Tertium NON Datur: Gender Binary as a ‘Principle of the Austrian Legal Order’?

February 07, 2018/ Tom Daly

Elisabeth Greif

In Austria, the decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court concerning the recognition of a “third gender” has been eagerly awaited. Before long, the Austrian Constitutional Court will have to decide a similar case: For the very first time, an intersex person – Alex Jürgen – filed an application that the legal gender status be changed to “inter” or “divers” or be cancelled at all.

February 03, 2018

Structure and Participation: On the Significance of the ‘Third Option’ for the Equality Guarantee

February 03, 2018/ Tom Daly

Nora Markard

In its decision on the “Third Option,” the German Federal Constitutional Court has recognized gender diversity beyond the male/female binary for the first time. As part of the Symposium, this contribution will focus on the significance of this decision for the constitutional non-discrimination guarantee. For the Court has, for the first time, not only recognized gender identity as part of the general right to personality (Allgemeines Persönlichkeitsrecht), but also under the non-discrimination clause of Article 3(3) of the Basic Law (GG).

January 23, 2018

The Same Freedom for Everyone!

January 23, 2018/ Tom Daly

Berit Völzmann

Gender diversity is also legally more than binary, according to the German Constitutional Court in its decision on the “third option”: the current law on civil status is unconstitutional, insofar as it requires the registration of a gender, but does not allow a positive entry other than female or male. Just as revolutionary as the result, is the reasoning: for the first time the senate not only derives the protection of gender identity from the general law of personality (Article 2 (1) in conjunction with Article 1 (1) basic law – Grundgesetz – GG), but also from the prohibition of discrimination (Article 3 (3) sentence 1 GG).

January 16, 2018

Symposium on the ‘Third Option’: ‘Not Man, Not Woman, Not Nothing’

January 16, 2018/ Tom Daly

Anna Katharina Mangold

It is a landmark decision (English PR) the First Senate of the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) released on November 8th, 2017 – of all days on Intersex Day of Solidarity. The decision will shake up the legal gender landscape, as much is already clear. People who so far have not been sufficiently acknowledged by legal gender regulation can follow up on the decision: Inter*, Trans* and Queer People.