Leonne Zeegers

Leonarda Josefina Maria Zeegers, known as Leonne Zeegers (born 1 March 1961 in Swalmen) is the first person in the Netherlands whose legal sex in the Personal Records Database (Basisregistratie Personen) and passport was changed to an "X" (for gender-neutral). The change took effect on 19 October 2018, Earlier in May 2018, Zeegers first attracted national attention when a district court in Limburg ruled that the sex designation in their birth certificate could be modified to indicate a person whose sex could not be determined at birth. Zeegers is intersex and non-binary, and has no preference regarding personal pronouns.

Biography Leonne Zeegers was born on a farm in Swalmen in the Dutch province of Limburg. At birth, Zeegers was found to be intersex, and had both male and female primary sex characteristics. This was not an unfamiliar phenomenon for Zeegers' parents, since calves and goats with similar variations in sex characteristics were occasionally born on the farm. Their parents decided to register them with the civil registry as a boy under the name Leon. As a child, they already felt more like a girl than a boy. During puberty, they did not develop male secondary sex characteristics, but instead developed breasts. They eventually underwent a double mastectomy, later married a woman, and had a son.

Gender neutrality In 2001, Zeegers underwent several surgeries to physically transition to female, and began taking female sex hormones. They changed their name to Leonne, and officially changed their legal sex to female.

In October 2018, Zeegers became the first adult Dutch citizen to receive a passport bearing an "X" (for gender-neutral) in the sex designation field.

Following the court ruling, the State Secretary for the Interior, Raymond Knops, stated that he wanted to make gender-neutral registration legally possible. In 2019, however, he postponed legislative action and declared that he wished to await international developments before proceeding. In 2019, following a motion introduced by Democrats 66, a study was launched into the possibilities of abolishing mandatory sex registration.