Male, female or in between?

Most intersex people identify as either male or female. But just as the rest of society is not made up of Barbies and Kens, intersex people are not all alike. There are tough guys, beautiful women and everything in between. Nothing out of the ordinary, in other words. But have you ever wondered why you are so sure that you are either male or female (or not sure – that’s also possible)? Pyrrho of Elis was mentioned earlier, the man who argued that no knowledge is certain. Since you only know your own vision, a little philosophical doubt would not hurt anyone.

NNID is committed to abolishing sex registration by governments, and is focusing on the government of the Netherlands. The obligation to state in the Basic Registration of Persons (BRP) whether someone is male or female makes parents feel extra pressure to subject a child to unnecessary medical treatments that can easily be postponed until the child is old enough to decide for himself. Already, it is possible for intersex children to be listed in the BRP as “gender was not able to be determined” and a number of intersex children now have an X in their passports. In 2018, the Roermond District Court ruled that adult intersex people may have their gender registration changed to ‘gender is not able to be determined’. While NNID welcomes these developments, we believe that all people should have the option to have their sex registration cancelled in the BRP. Moreover, this development should then be a step towards the complete abolition of gender registration by the government.