A person in the Netherlands has become the first in the country to receive a gender neutral passport.

The news follows a Dutch court ruling earlier this year, which declared that a third gender should be recognised for people who don’t identify as male or female.

Leonne Zeegers, a 57-year-old from Breda, has received a passport with an ‘X’ as their gender specification, rather than an ‘M’ for ‘mannetje’ (‘male’) or a ‘V’ for ‘vrouw’ (‘female’).

When Zeegers was born, they were classified as ‘male’ on their birth certificate and raised as a boy.

According to Dutch television and radio broadcaster Omroep Brabant, Zeegers realised during puberty that they didn’t identify as a man, and had surgery in 2001 to become female.

However, the former athlete and nurse now identifies as intersex, and in June won the right to identify as neither male or female.

The Netherlands isn’t the first country to introduce gender neutral passports. Read more via the Independent