Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
The country’s slide into gender chaos continues as a transgender person living in the state of Oregon has been permitted by the courts to change their sex to “non-binary” rather than male or female.
Oregon Live is reporting on Jamie Shupe, the first “non-binary” American citizen, who was permitted by Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Amy Holmes Hehn to change her legal status from female to non-binary.
“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.”
The 52 year-old Shupe, who is a veteran of the Army, began transitioning to female in 2013 but knew even then that neither male nor female would be a good “fit”. But, as Shupe complains, male and female were his only choices.
In April of this year, he asked an attorney to file a petition with the Oregon court to legal change Shupe’s sex to “non-binary”. The state’s laws allow a person to change their sex if a judge determines that the person has undergone surgical, hormonal, or other treatment related to gender transition, although a doctor’s note is not required.
Just in case, Shupe brought letters from Oregon Health & Science University, as well as the Veterans Affairs hospital.
“The sexual reassignment has been completed,” Hehn wrote in the ruling. “No person has shown cause why the requested General Judgment should not be granted.”
He is now choosing to go by the name of “Jamie” because it’s a gender-neutral name and says he prefers to be called by this name rather than by “he” or “she”.
Nancy Haque, a co-executive director for Basic Rights Oregon, whose background is in social justice activism, 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.”
Because the state of Oregon does not allow citizens to list “non-binary” on a driver’s license of state-issued ID, her organization is working to change that so that persons can legally change their sexual designation beyond male or female.
“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.”
The unfortunate part of this story, which is being left out by most media and the activists who are applauding the move, is that this kind of gender confusion is classified by the majority of medical experts as a mental disorder.
As this article inPsychology Today advises, persons who are experiencing these kinds of anxieties are in need of counseling and help by professionals – not agenda-driven social activists!
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