Transgender, transsexual, intersex – these terms can be confusing. There is now a third gender for intersex people.
Between male and female sex: What is intersex
Intersexuality is caused by a disorder of sex development. Those affected cannot be clearly assigned to one gender, but have both female and male physical characteristics.
- Intersex is someone who cannot be clearly assigned to the two common genders of man and woman.
- A person’s sex is determined by the sex chromosomes, the sex organs and the sex hormones.
- For example, an intersex person may have the external appearance of a woman, but lack sexual organs such as a uterus and ovaries.
- Chromosomes usually determine whether a person is male or female. In women there are two X chromosomes, in men there is one X and one Y chromosome.
- However, there are other variants in nature that do not allow the determination of gender based on the gonosomes, i.e. sex chromosomes. For example, people with Turner syndrome only have one sex chromosome, the X. In contrast, people with Klinefelter syndrome have three – namely XXY.
- Intersexuality can also be caused by hormones. If the ratio of female or male hormones is not right, this can lead to breast growth in men or excessive body hair in women.
- The most classic, but also rarest form of intersexuality is hermaphroditism verus – better known as hermaphroditism.
Federal Constitutional Court: There is a third gender
The Federal Constitutional Court has declared that in addition to “male” and “female” there is also a third gender.
- We often have to state our gender throughout our lives. This begins at birth. The sex of the child must be communicated to the registry office.
- For a long time, this was a big problem for people who were neither male nor female. Since 2013, the entry in the birth register could be left open if the child was not clearly male or female.
- This was indeed a first step for those affected to avoid being forced into one of the binary genders to which they did not, strictly speaking, clearly belong. The solution was nevertheless unsatisfactory – because those involved were then neutral, i.e. without any gender at all.
- The Federal Constitutional Court has also recognized this and ruled that a third gender must be possible alongside “male” and “female.” The German Ethics Council has proposed entering the gender “other.”
- In December 2018, the Bundestag passed the “Law amending the information to be entered in the birth register”, which finally passed the Bundesrat. Since then, the third gender has been called “diverse”.
Also interesting:
- What does straight mean? Simply explained
- Femboy meaning: This is the explanation of the term
- What does slay mean? Definition and origin of the word