Myself. From the courtroom to the ballot box in the United States for the First Time Ever and openly transgender candidate has won a state election on the transport there yes i am a transgender want to be one because i am a transparent because of my i pad and her an identifier that despite that i never ran away from him i championed down tonight legal and political victories for people whose gender is neither nor do i bring golf in berlin this is the day. We live in the states i know what its like to be that someone will what its like to be too afraid danica has no record of Public Service but does have a record of bad judgment i know what its like to pride myself on promoting transgender education in Public Schools for children as young as five years old still. In the words of things like sales who are you that. Anyones anyone else ever. Oh we begin the day with significant moves towards clarity about gender when Mother Nature herself is not so clear today germanys highest court ruled that birth certificates must still well three not two choices for the gender of a newborn child a third option to identify a persons gender that makes germany the first european country to offer into. Six people a choice beyond male and female intersex people are born with a mixture of male and female sex trade the un says that they comprise just under two percent of the worlds population thats a small number but its not an insignificant issue our coverage begins tonight with the person who went to court and started what is now being called a small revolution. Can hardly believe it the years of fighting for a third gender have finally been rewarded. There are lots of places in society where theres a split between the sexes. So i have to ask myself again and again how do i define myself do i try to fit in or do i trust myself not to do so and how are people going to react and. Its an issue that directly affects van year and around one hundred sixty thousand other intersex people in germany people who were born with male and female features and whose gender cant be identified and thats where the problem starts so far its only been possible to enter a male or female on the birth register or leave it open family has contained for a third category a third gender like into and diverse the court has opened the door to that although theyve left the exact description open. As. They seek personal rights also protect the Sexual Identity of those people who dont define themselves as male or female. The current law on civil status infringes on the prohibition of discrimination. Just because its not possible to enter anything other than male or female would have by plea he used the court has given lawmakers until the end of december twenty eighth seen to draft new rules. A big day here in germany and to talk about this ruling im joined by yanick vild he is with trans inter queer thats an odd that involves germanys Supreme Court in this case it is good to have you on the show how important is todays court ruling this Court Rulings crown breaking for nonbinary transcendental sex people in germany but also abroad it as it goes far beyond Everything Else that is there regarding the violation of rights of trans and a second nonbinary people so its crucial and it deserves a huge respect to the one who has undergone the thing with the federal court of justice and the fact that this is taking place in germany its not insignificant. This type of ruling has not happened anywhere else in europe what is it about germany and its legal system maybe its society that a weld for todays ruling i would put it the other way around so whats going on in other countries and in germany until today that this happened only today after years of Human Rights Campaign off almost all voluntary working intellects and transfer nonbinary organisations and individuals so in the end now that for example the Parliamentary Assembly of the council of europe for example has promoted to work better on the human rights situation of intersex and trans people and especially into sex people are nonbinary people finally the federal court has pushed it forward why different german. Governments havent gotten so far until now and now all forest and pushed to go for this is a case really where you have state parliaments and the National Parliament not being able to come up with legislation is the courts have had to decide you know we hear that across the world these days with paralysis among lawmakers and judges having to legislate whats going to. Change after this ruling because this ruling pertains specifically to birth certificates and this is going to change the options what that parents have or inductors have after a baby is born right but it will also be available for trans an intersex and number of people injuring augur lifetime to make their general at the station change into one that is more appropriate to their gender identity regardless of their sex character and thats important you say to change as their life progress is because the gender identity that is prescribed to a newborn may not necessarily be the correct one for that person when theyre in puberty when they become adults right and in this the thing that people really dont talk about in society i mean did you talk to the court about the taboos in society that still exist when youre talking about gender identity being fluid in changing the court has asked several organizations for their statements on this complaint and Many Organizations have given them to the court so to and to make them understand that the violation of human rights isnt just some off site topic that only has impact on very few people also one point seven percent of people like the council of europe works with this number phase theres a violation of rights so of course many individuals and organizations take part in this pushing forward and now finally the federal court has done this important and when we talk about gender we invariably also talk about sexuality and the taboo to which comes with that in the public what can todays really do to take away the taboo that automatically arises when we talk about things such as gender identity well general data targets every one of us so everyone has their own. Identity they feel very acknowledged off and then there are a few people who arent who arent shown as appropriate to their gender so it has a huge impact on maybe on solidarity towards nonbinary and trans and intersex people about for sure regarding their human rights which is something that also can be promoted now with this law to other countries but back to your question about like germany and germany being advanced in this case and in other aspects germany is not that much advanced compared to other countries for example the case of intersex babies born and then to undergo unconsented surgeries. That still part the surgeries without the consent of the child yes there is the legal in germany here it is in other countries its not possible anymore so there are other steps for germany to undergo and now its very important time as well because the next coalition is going to be like the governor and even together and this court demand has huge impact hopefully also on those. Who are going to go with trains into a query of the n. G. O. S that advised germanys Supreme Court on that one and more ruling today. Leah thank you very much thank you. Well how many transgender how many intersects people do you know if youve never met an openly intersex person the only encounter you may have had with the neither nor gender is probably through the media t. V. For example is a social meet and greet or so is literature well my next guest won a Pulitzer Prize for his book middlesex that for really the first time gave. Broad treatment to a topic that became part of american pop culture im happy to welcome to the show Jeffrey Eugenides he joins us tonight from Princeton University in the us where he teaches creative writing geoffrey lived here in berlin i think during the time when he was writing middlesex jeffrey its good to have you on the show this evening i want to ask you what do you think based on your time here in berlin what do you think it is about germany that made todays ruling possible. What is it about germany i dont know i think theres a fair amount of free thinking over there when i wrote middlesex i was living in shown to be going to berlin and then right stairs was the. Sexual bit in shopped. So there was a fair amount of. Study and thought going into. What constitutes gender and different variations about it so i think this is something that you can trace back in germany to the one nine hundred twenty s. You know investigations and now assists of gender and sexuality trying to figure out trying to understand how we can deal with it is a side of the so i would i would say thats probably why its emerging in germany before some other countries and when were talking about this if you have gender variance not being forced to choose male or female we see that in the United States this topic can be politicized very quickly or just think about that controversial restroom law in North Carolina that was aimed against Transgender Identity how would you characterize the environment there in the u. S. Where you are compared to germany when were talking about this this notion of intersex identity. Well i think you see as in almost all of our cultural issues in america a great divide transgender rights intersexual rights have advanced. Quite a bit credit a great deal United States as has gay marriage and some of the other issues relating to sexually at the same time when there are advances there are push backs and youre seeing that in some of the other states in america so its kind of a push pull thats going on here marriage is always. Characterized by a certain amount of advancement and retrenchment so. You probably have seen some of the same forces going on in germany i see it from the little bit i know about how the law is advancing i know theres some up as asian from certain quarters one of them being the Catholic Church in germany so. You can imagine what its like in america its just an exaggerated form of probably the discussion your euro having in germany i want to talk a little bit about your book middlesex it dealt with a hermaphrodite and you know for our viewers out there maybe you arent familiar with that were talking about a person who may have the actual the sexual organs of both a man and a woman and you write in the book about this the struggles of of that person would you say though that the world that you wrote middlesex in the beginning of this interim basically compared to today would you say that those are two different worlds i mean would you be able to write middlesex the way you did back then would you be able to write that same book today. Well first of all when youre talking about an actual living person i would only use the term an intersexual or intersex hermaphrodite is really a term used in literature to refer to a mythical creature of of both sexes its not the preferred term for people who have any and of ambiguous gender indeterminate gender. I wrote the book and it came out in two thousand and two and has been part of this discussion if not initiating some of it. What i write the book again today i dont usually write about things. After the you know after theyve become clear and i try to get ahead of the head of the ball in that way so i dont think i would write the book now because youve seen so much so much of a topic come out it would be less original less fresh and in a certain way thered be less need for me to write it i dont think i write in a different way because nothing has changed in terms of the whats in the book the book is a story about one one into sexual slifer and his family and his experiences growing up in detroit and the experiences of his grandparents and parents immigrating from asia minor to america so to be no need to to change the book because fifteen years have passed but i am very surprised at how quickly. The issue has become in the mainstream with middlesex came out and used to have to explain the concept of gender identity to audiences. I spoke to people didnt even understand that gender could be. Different and once biological sex and the gender was on a continuum and this is not a binary was it was an idea that a lot of people hadnt considered before. Things have changed quite rapidly since the book came out there was kind of a lot of resistance in two thousand and two when when the book came out and a lot of people didnt want to read it they thought it was some kind of. Story about a freak or Something Like that and so im happy that it contributed to a greater understand and any of what these people are like and what they go go through and you know i can only be happy to see that its starting to have political ramifications and i want to ask you before we run out of time youve been quoted as saying there really is no other form that can describe how people are thinking as well as the novel can. Maybe im going to ask you to brainstorm for a second here with this describe the novel you think they could be inspired by the events that happened today this court ruling in germany is there a novel that could come out of that. This is possibly a novel that and come out of it it wont be my novel so i dont know that i want to brainstorm it perhaps you could write a story from the point of view of someone. In germany whose interest sect cooks who is fighting for this change to do the designation i dont know of you know theres as many stories about intersex people as there are the regular people each story would be different ive always approached the topic not in a. Analytical way or in a stereotypical way i think each person is different each persons story is going to be going to be different and i wouldnt try to encapsulate everyones experience intersex or not in the novel is theres no sense and in generalizing of a ticket there east particularly is a peoples loss Pulitzer Prize winning author Jeffrey Eugenides joining us tonight from princeton geoffrey thank you very much we appreciate your time tonight thank you for in the United States democrats are celebrating a long list of election day victories from new york city to new jersey to virginia tuesdays Election Results are considered the first verdict on the first year of the trumpet ministration and for the First Time Ever and openly transgender candidate has won a state election in virginia democrat rome won a seat in the state assembly beating her republican rival who ran a Smear Campaign against transgender rights. On the cover and celebrating a historic victory in virginia. Not ten you see the first open the transgender person the elected to a u. S. State that just as she also defeated a staunch conservative republican to get that marshall had sponsored legislation seeking to restrict which bathrooms transgender people can use but it was algae champion road who came out on top. Yeah i am a transgender woman everyone because i am a translator and because i am a reporter because i am a white woman president now because of my faith in her and i did of course not despite them i never ran away from them i championed one of rahms campaign ads showed how putting on makeup and taking home. But while growing fought for representation for the Trans Community it was not the focus of her campaign instead she sought with ideas on how to solve local infrastructure issues. Traffic congestion doesnt care what your generated this Traffic Congestion doesnt care what your sexuality is just doesnt care what your race is just doesnt care or your Traffic Congestion hates everyone because the congested everyone gets stuck at. Rome has at times seemed frustrated by the amount of attention paid to have gender identity. It shouldnt be a revolutionary act to say this is who i am this is why i am well qualified for all the long time local reporter and as a lifelong resident of the district im running properties that its bigger of want to have to say like and im transgender. Once the celebrations are over the hard work of Office Begins rome wants to make the journey a more inclusive but not before she saw that Traffic Congestion. Your good luck with that in Northern Virginia all right im joined now by saw in malloy the political director of victory fund thats a u. S. Group campaigning to increase the number of openly. Politicians and help them get elected danica room is one of their produce a sean welcome to the show you how surprised were you that danica have won last night particularly against such a conservative opponent. Well we were really werent that surprised at all danica was running a campaign that was focused on local issues and thats what drives many elections in the United States of america and so when she went to doors and talked about Traffic Congestion and problems with power lines thats what resonated with people shes she is an openly transgender woman but she didnt and she ran as an openly transgender woman but that wasnt the focus of our campaign the focus of our campaign was her community and thats something that bob marshall wasnt focusing on he was more worried about passing and legislation his constituents realize that and danica was victorious. It was the only. Winner was. Elected but with victory fund back you. Yeah burr calling this the year of the transgender candidate danica obviously is going to be the only openly overly transgender state legislator in the country once shes sworn in but we also had some other great wins from transgender candidates across the country Lisa Middleton in palm springs california becomes the first nonjudicial candidate elected to any office in the state of california tyler titus one in the state of pennsylvania a state that voted for donald trump last year to a school board which is so important when were talking about trance children growing up as well as Andrea Jenkins in minneapolis minnesota she is the first trans person elected to a major city council in the United States of america and were so excited that she will probably be followed hopefully by Felipe Cunningham whose votes are finally being counted and will hopefully be announced today i want to ask you what are your limits when it comes to supporting. Candidates for example log cabin republicans in you know for our viewers around the world if theyre not familiar with that log cabin republicans are are basically new gay lesbian members of the Republican Party do you support them if they have what you consider to be the right agenda. Yeah so victory fund believes that representation is power when we elect people like danica and like our other candidates that won last night that allows algae we keep people to have a seat at the table so were not on the menu so were able to stop the legislation as a lot harder to do that when someone is sitting next to you in a legislature a city council or school board and victory fund indorse is all people who are running for office from the da catcher all the way up to the United States senate and we endorse those who are openly. And who identify as prochoice and im sure this was the first election following the election victory of donald trump we have the midterms next year twenty twenty is another president ial election and we would go to. Forty seconds what are your chances of making donald trump a one term president. Well at the victory fund were focused on electing l. G. Q people and i havent heard of anyone as of right now whos running for president but we do have some really important races next year that i think will set the tone for those president ial Elections CenterTammy Baldwin the first person elected to the United States senate is up for reelection next year and kiersten cinema shes a current congresswoman shes running for senate in the state of arizona thats supposed to be the best pick up opportunities for democrats too and so i think those races will far tell exactly what their chances are in. Two thousand and twenty or john malloy political director with victory fund sean thank you very much we appreciate you being on the day. And on social media were seeing overwhelmingly positive reactions to danica election victory democratic politician mark takano tweeted the story of equality has been defined by people who have the courage to own their idea that a den of her room a really beautiful new chapter tonight congratulations to virginias first openly transgender elected official bride from the Human Rights Campaign so the election could be Game Changing im getting texts and emails from parents of trans use from across the country all saying the same thing this morning i got to tell my kid that transgender people were just elected to city council in the state legislature she had last night will save lives of many on twitter are pointing out that this is not the first transgender person elected in the u. S. We of course should not forget thea garros and the first transgender person elected to a state legislature period unlike rome however she was not out at the time of her election and was elected back in nineteen ninety two a different time. Well the day is nearly done but as always the conversation continues online youll find us on twitter either at d. W. News or you can write directly to me a brit off t. V. Dont forget to use the hash tag you see right there the day and remember no matter what happens between now and then tomorrow is another day well see then everybody. Entered the conflict zone there are plenty of strong views about the Muslim Brotherhood several arab states have declared them thats terrorist organizations my guest here in amman jordan is a team of top who shes an m. P. For the islamic action from the political wing of the brotherhood was king at. Dollar right to accuse them of being like wolves in sheeps clothing. In thirty minutes on the w. 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News live from berlin tonight its a boy its a girl or neither know what a Landmark Court ruling means that germany could become the first european country to offer a third gender on birth certificates its being called a small revolution with the court