GERMANY TO ALLOW HERAMPHRODITES TO BE REGISTERED AS NEITHER MALE NOR FEMALE

 

The first country in the world to take up the plight of hermaphrodites is Germany, with a new law that allows children born with both sexes, or hermaphroditic, to be registered as neither male nor female. 

The omission of traditional gender qualification, will be ad admission of a third 'sex' or identity that will allow hermaphrodites to be free to choose their identity later on, and will be shielded from the constriction of gender identification. 

In the past, quick gender identification, by choosing the gender that was ascertained to be the prevalent morphism in the newborn, allowed the authorities to impose on the child a tenor of life that was completely alien to the child's will or choice to become what he wished.

In fact, the hermaphroditic sexual prevalence is not always an indication of the how the child will identify as an adult.  But at the same time, if a child is placed on the 'books' as a female, or viceversa, she or he faces tremendous ostracism and alienation if his dual sexual morphism is exposed. 

Particularly grevious, in the past, was the intervention of parents, embassared or ashamed at their child's 'anomaly' who at times proceeded to surgically remove the non prevalent sexual organ in their children.  Assignment surgeries, as they are called, are sometime cruel attempts at steering the child toward a definite identity.  But the surgery does not remove neither the complex hormonal differences that charactizes the hermaphrodite nor the emotional and psychological ones, which are very complex and need the type of personal decision making that only an adult can make.  But if the identity is assigned very early on, the child never has a chance to make those decisions for itself.

The passport of hermaphrodites will have a letter X to distinguish it from M or F, the usual designation in the old dual gender identification system. 

This gender differentiation will have complex questions that need resolving in terms of the legal ramification in marriage or otherwise for people whose sex is X. 

Some however have raised question on how the immediate and early differentiation into the new gender sort will affect the child.  Until now, hermaphrodites were a community that had almost no exposure, as it has been a taboo for centuries.  And how will the child with new gender classification fare in the school or workplace if everyone knows his 'difference' so openly?  The risk is also that the child could be the target of bullying.

All growing pains, say some.  But this is an important step in the acknowledgement of the differentiation of people who are not accepting or are physically different than the binary gender classification. 

Another country, Australia, has taken steps to allow inter-gender people to identify themselves as intersex.  

Hermaphrodites are born at the rate of 1 in 1500, so the numbers are significant and the issue of their identification in a way that respects their civil and human rights must be addressed.  In addition, the population at large has people whose emotional or hormonal makeup fails to fit in the old categories. 

Op-Ed

Partial Source : France 24/ 10.30.13