The Swiss government has rejected proposals to introduce a third gender option or no-gender option in official records, stating that the “binary gender model is still strongly anchored in Swiss society,” The Associated Press reports.
The Federal Council, Switzerland’s governing body, explained that such changes would require numerous amendments to both the national constitution and the laws of the 26 cantons, or states.
Currently, individuals are only allowed to be registered as either male or female.
The Federal Council added that a national ethics commission found in a 2020 report that the time was not yet right for a change to the current system.
In contrast, both Germany and Austria have implemented changes to their official record systems to allow for non-binary gender options. In 2018, Germany approved a third gender option for official records, allowing individuals to be registered as “diverse,” while Austria’s federal court ruled that authorities must allow individuals to be entered in official records as something other than male or female if they so wish.
These developments came in response to rulings by the countries’ highest courts, which ordered authorities to either create a third identity or eliminate gender entries altogether.
