The first Austrian to gain official documents with a third option beyond male or female on Wednesday hailed the move as recognition for those who do not identify as either.

"(For) the first time in my life, I feel seen by the law," said Alex Juergen, who is intersex, a term for people who are born with atypical chromosomes or sex characteristics. “There was no place for people who are not male or female." Juergen, who fought a three-year legal battle for recognition, now has a passport with the sex classification "X" instead of "M" or "F" and a birth certificate saying "divers", which roughly translates as "other".

In 2018, a constitutional court ruled that the country's laws allowed for the inclusion of more than two sex options on identity documents. A growing number of U.S. states, as well as countries including Germany, Pakistan and Nepal, now allow people to choose a third sex option on official documents.

Juergen also called on Austria's government to make the third option easier to get. Regulations issued by Austria's interior ministry after the 2018 court ruling state that a child whose sex cannot be determined should have "open" on their birth certificate until a decision can be made by them or their legal representative. An intersex person can get "divers" on their birth certificate if they are issued with a report by a panel of medical experts, a requirement that activists want removed. Read more via Reuters