We are thrilled to report that our colleague Alex Jurgen, founder of OII Austria, has attained the country’s first third sex identity documents.

“(For) the first time in my life, I feel seen by the law,” Juergen told Reuters. “There was no place for people who are not male or female.”

After a three year legal battle, Jurgen now has a passport with an “X’ rather than ‘M’ or ‘F’ sex/gender marker–as our Associate Director Dana Zzyym’s lawsuit is currently fighting for in the US– and birth certificate saying “divers”, which roughly translates as “other”.

We could not be happier for Juergen, a long-term intersex activist whom co-presented with our E.D. at the Intersex Solidarity Days weekend in Vienna, in November 2015. Like Jurgen, we have long felt that intersex people who wish to do so should be able to be recognized by law as neither male nor female. A big step towards ending our oppression is for governments to recognize our existence, and we congratulate Jurgen on winning this battle for intersex rights and inclusion!

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-austria-lgbt-regulations-idUSKCN1SL26T