Sara Davis, Getty Images North America, AFP | A gender neutral sign is posted outside a bathroom at Oval Park Grill on May 11, 2016 in Durham, North Carolina, USA.

France’s top court of appeals on Thursday ruled that a person of indeterminate sex could not use “neutral gender” as a civil status category.

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In a landmark ruling on a case filed by a 65-year-old psychotherapist, the court noted that “the duality” of gender as a civil status was “necessary for social and legal organisation”.

The latest ruling came months after a French court recognised “neutral gender” in a case filed by the 65-year-old plaintiff who was born with indeterminate gender but assigned a male status at birth.

In August 2015, a family court in the central French city of Tours accepted a neutral gender category. But in March 2016, an appeals court in Orléans rejected the ruling.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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