Third gender fights for recognition
by Isabelle Eichenberger
Jan 23, 2013 - 11:00
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Third_gender_fights_for_recognition.html?cid=34791620A child who is born neither a girl nor a boy has it tough from the start, and deciding on your gender is even more difficult when you don't know who you are. In Switzerland, moves are underway to end unnecessary medical treatment as well as discrimination, and leave decisions to those most directly concerned.
"Imagine what it's like when the midwife can't tell you if your baby is a boy or a girl. What should you call it? How do you announce the birth to your friends or to the registrar's office? 'He was born with a male XY chromosome, but also a uterus, a sort of penis and a large clitoris'?"
This is the emotional description Karin Plattner gives of the birth of her first child 13 years ago.
