The Right to One's Own Identity in Front of the Sex and Gender Binary

Abstract

Abstract: Some official documents beside other information about an individual report the legal sex of a person. There are normally just two entries for this registration because it is based on the assumption that all people are born ore male or female and will identify as women or man. This has contributed to the invisibility of bodies and identities that are beyond such a binary model as they have been forced within the dichotomous categories. This article evaluates the impact of this binary sex and gender model on the fundamental rights of people by looking to the recent Austrian and German Constitutional Courts rulings. It further examines how these Court rulings has been translated onto national law by looking to their compliance with the human rights standards.

Keywords: sex, gender, personal identity, discrimination.