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The federal government’s CH login recognizes a third gender: Mr., Mrs. and “Mx”.
Leah HartmannEditor Politics
Husband and wife, that’s enough for the union. He opposes the introduction of a third gender category for people who don’t feel like they belong to either gender. The Department of Justice, then still under Federal Councilor Karin Keller-Sutter (59, FDP), recorded this in a report at the end of the year.
The third gender in the federal government is already a reality. If you register for the CH login, which you need to access the online services of the federal government, you can not only click Mr. or Ms. but also “Mx”. This is a category that is widespread in the English-speaking world for non-binary people or for people who do not want to state their gender. The two letters are pronounced “Mix” or “Mex”.
The third gender – an “accident”
The CH login is used for over 800 government services. 1.7 million users are registered. Unemployed people need the login, for example, to submit documents online to the regional employment center (RAV). And women farmers to register a new cow. Civil servants also have to use the CH login to plan their assignments. The same applies to drone pilots who want to register their aircraft, which has been mandatory since the beginning of the year. They can all choose whether they want to be addressed by the authorities as Mr., Mrs. or “Mx”.
In many forms, it is now common that gender is not mandatory or that there is a category such as “various” or “no information”. But so far, the state government does not consider the new category to be necessary. The federal administration is now using the “Mx” in a more modern way than the Federal Council allows.
The Federal Chancellery is responsible for the CH login. When asked, she says the whole thing was an “accident”. The third gender was unintentionally activated in an update at the beginning of the year. “We will correct that as soon as possible, probably this week,” says Florian Imbach from the Federal Chancellery. On Monday, the Federal Chancellery was unable to answer the question of how exactly this mistake could have happened.
Society is not ready yet
In Germany, it has been possible since 2018 to enter “X” in the passport instead of male or female. Austria also does not just leave it with men and women. And in the Netherlands, from next year, the gender will no longer be given on the ID.
In Switzerland, however, the Federal Council does not see society as ready for the third gender. The Department of Justice had referred to the National Ethics Committee (NEK) under Keller-Sutter’s leadership. In 2020, this stated that although the current regulation was unsatisfactory, “the social prerequisites for the task of the binary gender model had to be created first”, according to the state government.
Left hope for Baume-Schneider
Only: The ethics committee never said it that way. Rather, as Blick reported, the Commission’s position is that it would be best if gender were no longer recorded in official registers. Since such a change would have far-reaching consequences, it would be better to proceed in several stages. As a first step, the NEK recommends the introduction of a third gender.
At the request of the Green National Councilor Sibel Arslan (42), the Legal Commission of the National Council is now dealing with the issue again. She listens to trans people. After that, the Greens, contrary to the position of the Federal Council, are considering introducing the third gender through parliamentary channels. One hope on the left is that the new Justice Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (59, SP) will be more open to the issue than her predecessor Keller-Sutter.