Nonbinary: Army Veteran In Oregon Is Not Legally Classified As Male Or Female Gender

In what could be the first case of a person in Oregon and even the United States being classified as nonbinary, or not female or male, an Army veteran is grateful to be free from male and female gender classifications.

Jamie Shupe, 52, was born as a male, but later began transitioning to a female in 2013, according to CNN. At the time, transitioning to female was the only thing that was available for Shupe to address the need to outwardly become how Shupe felt on the inside.

However, Shupe, who lives in Portland, Oregon, felt the change to female was not enough to express the feelings of who the retired Army veteran really was.

“I was assigned male at birth due to biology. 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 nonbinary allows me to do that. I’m a mixture of both. I consider myself as a third sex.”

Shupe filed a petition to the court to change Jamie’s gender identity to nonbinary in April, and Judge Amy Holmes Hehn granted the request on Friday.

“The sexual reassignment has been completed,” Hehn wrote in the historic ruling. “No person has shown cause why the requested general judgment should not be granted.”

Civil rights attorney Lake J. Perriguey said, “The law just says, ‘change.’ Historically, people have asked for a gender change from male to female and the other way around, but Jamie is the first to ask for the gender of ‘nonbinary.’ ”

The law in Oregon allowed people to petition the court for a gender change, but that law never declared whether the change must be male or female, Perriguey said. On the petition, there were options for male or female changes, but nothing else. Instead, the word “nonbinary” was written.

This is a significant ruling for people in Oregon and the United States. Two years ago, a petition surfaced and failed at the White House for a ruling for nonbinary gender to be recognized legally. The nonbinary petition nodded to laws in Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K., according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Instead of using “Mr.” or “Ms.”, Shupe prefers to use the title “Mx.” to associate with Shupe’s nonbinary gender. The gender-neutral title was added to the Oxford-English dictionary in 2015. It can also be pronounced “Mixter” or “Mixer,” depending on which the person prefers.

Mx. Shupe also prefers to use “Jamie” in place of a pronoun, such as “she” or “he.”

Despite the nonbinary ruling for Shupe, Shupe cannot use the gender label of nonbinary for all legal documents. Passports and even Oregon’s driver’s licenses only allow for female or male choices.

Australia and New Zealand currently use an X in place of an M or an F on passports to accommodate individuals who identify as nonbinary, and Heather Betz, lead attorney for the LGBT Law Project at the New York Legal Assistance Center, believes the United States could follow suit on passports and driver’s licenses.

Mx. Jamie Shupe has opened the door for many others who wish to be legally nonbinary. The Army veteran in Oregon is not legally classified as male or female any longer, and courts are starting to recognize the diversity of people with gender identities outside of traditional viewpoints.

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