In the constitutional complaint 1 BvR 2019/16 of 2017, the claimant was assigned female at birth and was registered as a girl in the natal register. Due to the Turner Syndrome, the person only has one x chromosome. The person permanently does not identify as either female or male and applied therefore for the positive entry as divers in the natal register. The responsible registry office denied this on the basis of the Civil status law (PStG), as § 21 para. 1 no. 3 in connection with § 22 para. 3 PStG would not allow such a registration. The only possibility for the claimant would be to have no gender recognition in the natal register.

The Federal Constitutional Law ruled in favour of the claimant. The Civil status law requires the registration of a gender but does not offer the possibility of a positive entry besides male and female, but only leaving such a registration free of any indication. Therefore, the recognition of the gender identity is denied. The proclamation of the Federal Constitutional Law of 10 October 2017 states that the General Right of Personality as well as the procedural right of people who permanently do not identify as either male or female are violated. Therefore, the regulations of the § 22 para. 3 PStG are unconstitutional. The legal regulation violates the general right of personality pursuant to art. 2 para. 1 in connection with art. 1 para. 1 GG in its meaning as the protection of the gender identity. At the same time, § 22 para. 3 PStG discriminates on the ground of gender/sex, therefore, the prohibition of discrimination anchored in art. 3 para. 3 sentence 1 GG was also violated.

The Federal Constitutional Law mandated the federal government to eliminate the violations of the general right of personality and the principle of equality, resulting from the existing regulations of the Civil status law. The previously – both legally as well as socially – recognised gender categories ‘male’ and ‘female’ have been extended to include the new entry ‘divers’ with the new law of 18 December 2018, regarding the information in the natal register.