'Alternative Sexual Identity': Austria Recognizes 'Third Gender'

Austria’s Constitutional Court has handed down a verdict that will allow people to be registered in official documents as something other than male or female if they wish.

The Austrian court, in response to a request from an intersexual activist known as Alex Juergen, called upon the European Convention on Human Rights to introduce the option of "other" or "inter" on civil register forms that ask for a person's gender.

"For the first time in my life, I feel like am being recognized as what I am, how I was born," said Alex Juergen, whose real name remains a secret.

The court emphasized in its ruling that Article 8 of the European Human Rights Convention certifies the right to "an individual sexual identity" and defends "in particular, people with an alternative sexual identity."

The existing law will not be amended according to the court decision since it does not explicitly require the male or female sex to be documented.

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Last November, Germany became the first European country to call for the official recognition of a "third sex", a decision supported in May by the Netherlands.

The third gender has already received legal recognition in several countries, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, India, Pakistan and Nepal.

According to UN experts, from 0.05 to 1.7% of intersex people are born into the world.