Courtesy of Jamie Shupe.
An Oregon judge has ruled that 52-year-old Jamie Shupe can legally identify as neither male nor female.
Shupe was assigned the sex of male at birth and began transitioning to female as an adult, all while married to a woman and raising a daughter.
“I did this because we desperately needed a legal way to be trans for those of us that exist outside of traditional male and female boundaries,” Shupe told Out after the historic ruling. “And I was in a position to make that legal option happen.”
A decorated veteran, Shupe acknowledges that their (Shupe uses the pronoun they) position is one of privilege, not shared by much of the trans community. “The government puts money in my bank account every month. I’ve been able to exist in this bubble where I’ve mostly avoided abuse,” Shupe said.
Overall, the reaction to Shupe’s case as been encouraging: “Besides a few religious figures calling me the Antichrist, the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive and incredible,” they added.
[…]
Shupe’s landmark ruling is a major turning point in the legal rights of gender non-conforming people.
Via Out.
There are times I think uStates would be utterly lost without Oregon. Thanks for leading the way yet again.
If it weren’t for that I am terrified of the Cascadia Subduction Zone (I know … weird to be afraid of that given how much air travel I do and some of the places I fly over…) I’d always wanted to retire to Portland. It’s like Oregon has been taken over by common sense or something.
Marcus:
Yes, and it’s a good thing. If I had the option to change my designation to non-binary, I’d do it in a second, simply because that would be one box of expectation I could eliminate from my life.
“I’d like to thank the voters of the state of Oregon for having the wisdom to let me do myself in.” -- from How To Die in Oregon.
Wow, yay Oregon.
Also yay for Shupe.
Oregon probably makes so much sense because of the subduction zone. That way, once the chaos descends, common sense will be the first to go. For a proper apocalypse and all that.