Alex Jürgen was the first Austrian citizen to have his legal documents updated to reflect his gender identity. Her passport issued in Vienna lists her gender as 'X'. While her birth certificate issued in Steyr, lists her gender as 'miscellaneous'.
What happened?
Jürgen, who is intersex, took the lack of a third gender option on government-issued identity documents to court. Furthermore, in 2016 he requested that the civil registration office in Steyr change this.
The office rejected his request. As a result, he called in article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights. The letter states that self-determined gender identity is a fundamental right.
The fabric of the country's moral code – its constitution – had to be changed for Jürgen.
Austria's Constitutional Court, responsible for reviewing the constitutionality of statutes, sided with Jürgen in June 2018.
'We are very excited'
However, the decision was shaky. Interior Minister Herbert Kickl instructed registry offices in December 2018 that the gender of newborns be registered as “male”, “female” or “open”.
Furthermore, a third gender option can only be entered if the VdG board – a medical authority on variants of gender development set up by the Ministry of Health – confirms the child as intersex.
“We are very excited and celebrate the historic publication of the first documents featuring a third sex,” said Dr. Helmut Graupner, Jürgen's lawyer and Chairman of the LAMBDA Judiciary Committee (RKL);
“At the same time, we regret that the Minister of the Interior orders civil registration offices to break the law and force intersex people to go to court again.”
