Remember when the State Department decided it would be good to remove “father” and “mother” designations from passport applications and to replace them with “Parent 1” and “Parent 2”? Don’t look now, but in Oregon (where a 15 year-old can get a taxpayer-funded sex change operation), the government will allow you to call yourself “non-binary” if you are transgender.
From the Law Works LLC website:
On June 10, 2016, a Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge for the State of Oregon granted Jamie Shupe’s petition to change the legal sex/gender marker from Female to Nonbinary. Lake Perriguey, of Law Works LLC, represented Jamie in what is understood to be the first order from a United States state court to recognize “non-binary” as a legal gender/sex identifier as part of a legal sex change procedure.Oregon law does not specifically limit gender choices to Male or Female. Instead, the law allows a judge to order a legal change of sex and enter a judgment indicating the change of sex of a person if the court determines that the individual has undergone surgical, hormonal or other treatment appropriate for that individual for the purpose of gender transition and that sexual reassignment has been completed. See Oregon Revised Statute 33.460.
An Oregon judge ruled Friday that a transgender person can legally change their sex to “non-binary” rather than male or female in what legal experts believe is a first in the United States.Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Amy Holmes Hehn legally changed 52-year-old Jamie Shupe’s sex from “female” to non-binary.Nancy Haque, a co-executive director for Basic Rights Oregon, called the ruling a “momentous day for genderqueer Oregonians.””It’s really exciting for the courts to actually recognize what we know to be true: gender is a spectrum,” Haque said. “Some people don’t identify as male or female.”
Shupe never “felt right” about being labeled a male or a female.
Shupe, an Army veteran who retired in 2000 a sergeant first class, began transitioning in 2013 while living in Pittsburg. Shupe knew then that neither male nor female fit. Shupe chose “Jamie” as a new first name primarily because it is a gender-neutral name. Shupe prefers to be called “Jamie,” rather than by a pronoun.”I was assigned male at birth due to biology,” Shupe said. “I’m stuck with that for life. My gender identity is definitely feminine. My gender identity has never been male, but I feel like I have to own up to my male biology. Being non-binary allows me to do that. I’m a mixture of both. I consider myself as a third sex.”But female or male were the only legal options Shupe saw then. Shupe chose female, but female never felt right. In April, Shupe and lawyer Lake Perriguey filed a petition with the Oregon court to legally change Shupe’s sex.
While reveling in this victory, Basic Rights Oregon is working to allow for other gender categories on drivers’ licenses and the like.
The Oregonian continues:
But, Haque said, there is still work to be done. Basic Rights Oregon is working with “public and private systems” across the state to offer people designations beyond male or female. Oregonians cannot list “non-binary” on a driver’s license or state-issued identification card, for instance. Others have been denied medical services, Haque said, because their gender identities don’t conform to existing norms.”It’s a huge barrier to being able to live your life, to having a driver license, to employment, to having records about your life, transcripts, all of those things,” Haque said. “In all the ways our lives are gendered in ways they frankly don’t have to be, it can be a barrier for people whose identities aren’t easily put in a box.”Haque said her organization increasingly hears from non-binary people.
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