In the midst of national controversies over transgender rights, such as the bathroom laws in North Carolina, an Oregon court recently took a revolutionary step toward supporting varying gender identities. In a decision made Friday, people will now be able to legally choose to be neither sex. In other words, you have the right to be able to identify as “gender nonbinary” instead of exclusively as male or female, The New York Times reports.
Jaime Shupe, a retired U.S. Army Sergeant, successfully petitioned Portland, Ore. to be legally designated as nonbinary. Judge Amy Holmes Hehn of the Circuit Court in Multnomah County approved the petition. At first, she told Shupe’s lawyer Lake Perriguey that he was “pushing the envelope,” with the request to not identify as a particular gender.
To this, Perriguey reportedly replied, “We’re not, really. The envelope just needs to get bigger.”
In 2013, Shupe, who prefers the gender-neutral pronouns “they” and “their,” finally retired from the military after 18 years. That’s when they decided to start living their life as the woman they had always believed theirself to be, despite Shupe’s male anatomy. According to the NY Times, Shupe won a hard fought battle with the military to be given discharge papers that officially reflected their female gender.
However, Shupe soon realized that they did not feel quite right being fully female, either. They did not want to classify theirself as exclusively male or female—Shupe was, instead, “nonbinary.”
Refinery29 reports that although the Oregon court allowed Shupe to petition to change their gender status, others seeking to follow suit must still get a separate petition signed off by the court. Still, Transgender Law Center executive director Kris Hayashi calls this a “historic step” in the right direction, according to the NY Times. Shupe has paved the way for our right to freely—and legally—express our chosen gender identity.