Germany allows babies to have indeterminate sex

Germany yesterday became the first European country to allow babies born with characteristics of both sexes to be registered as neither male nor female, but advocates called for broader reforms.

Under the new legislation, the entry for gender can be left blank on birth certificates, effectively creating a category for indeterminate sex in the public register.

But activists promoting the rights of so-called "intersex" people said they hoped the creation of a third gender option would open the door to broader changes limiting genital surgery on newborns with both male and female characteristics.

"It's a first, important step in the right direction," Lucie Veith, an intersex person from the northern German city of Hamburg, told AFP.

But Veith said leaving the gender undefined on birth certificates was never the main lobbying point for her group, the German chapter of the Association of Intersexed People, which wants to forbid cosmetic genital surgery for newborns.

Experts estimate one in 1,500 to 2,000 births result in a baby of indeterminate gender or with both male and female gender features.