The Swiss government has rejected the idea of introducing a third gender or a genderless option in official documents, Reuters reported.

The governing Federal Council said that the binary gender model is still firmly entrenched in Swiss society.

There are currently no social preconditions for the introduction of a third gender or the rejection of gender records altogether, the report said.

The Federal Council added that such options would require numerous changes to the Swiss Constitution and laws both at the national level and in the country's 26 cantons (states).

The government said that the national ethics commission indicated in its 2020 report that the time to change the system was not yet ripe.