The Netherlands issued its first ever gender-neutral passport. On Friday 57-year-old Leonne Zeegers from Breda, who as an intersex person does not identify as a man or a woman, received a passport with an 'X', instead of an 'M' for male or 'V' for female, NU.nl reports.
Zeegers won the right to a gender neutral passport in a lawsuit. In May the court ruled that the fact Zeegers can not register as gender neutral is "a violation of private life, self-determination and personal autonomy".
A Roermond resident who doesn't identify as either male or female should get an improved birth certificate and passport, the court in Limburg ruled on Monday. The Roermond resident's gender on these documents should be adjusted to "gender can not be determined", according to the court, RTL Nieuws reports.
The VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie are now really very almost done with their government agreement, ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers said to NOS on Friday afternoon. But he thinks the four parties will have to meet again on Monday.
There will be no meetings over the weekend. The ChristenUnie respects the Sunday rest. "And on Saturday I have other plans", Segers said to the broadcaster.
The new Dutch government plans to limit gender registration and work gender-neutrally as much as possible, sources confirmed to RTL Nieuws. Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution will be supplemented to specifically prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.
From the end of this year, Hema is removing all gender indications from its children's clothing. In 300 of the 700 Hema branches, the children's clothing department will no longer be labeled "boys" and "girls", but simply "kids". Hema is the first Dutch retail chain to take this step, NU.nl reports.
State Secretary Sharon Dijksma of Infrastructure gave a remarkable answer to parliamentary questions by a PVV MP about NS' decision to use gender-neutral terms in their announcements.
PVV parliamentarian Roy van Aalst wanted to know hom many people are working on implementing the new gender-neutral form of address of "dear travelers" in NS announcements, according to AD.
The PVV is vehemently against rail company NS' plan to stop using "ladies and gentlemen" in their announcements and replace it with gender-neutral "best travelers". PVV leader Geert Wilders tweeted that this plan is "madness" and that the NS lost its way.
"NS completely lost its way. Rather make sure the trains run on time than gender neutral communication. Madness", Wilders tweeted.
Dutch rail company NS decided to also make its announcements gender neutral. Following the example of London's underground and the municipality of Amsterdam, NS will soon address its travelers not as 'ladies and gentlemen', but as 'best travelers', NOS reports.
This measure will be implemented with the new timetable on December 10th. NS hopes to also turn all the broadcasts on stations gender neutral - the company is in talks with the other transit companies on the Dutch rail network.
The municipality of Amsterdam is taking another step towards gender-neutrality. From now on the municipality is scrapping the words "ladies and gentlemen" from the beginning of speeches and will also no longer start letters with "Dear Sir/Madam", Het Parool reports.
