Gordon Friedman

Statesman Journal

An Oregon judge decided this month that a person can legally identify as neither sex, but the Oregon DMV will need months — maybe years — before it can issue a driver's license with a nonbinary sex designation, according to a spokesman.

The Multnomah County Circuit Court ruling "blindsided" the DMV, said spokesman David House. "We have a process for going from male to female or female to male. We’ve never had anything else before," House said.

State law allows a court to legally change a person's sex if they've undergone sexual reassignment surgery, hormonal treatments or other transition treatments. But state law doesn't limit gender designation to male or female.

The petitioner for the ruling is 52-year-old Jamie Shupe of Portland. Shupe was born with male anatomy and is a retired U.S. Army sergeant. Shupe fought to get military discharge papers as female and later transitioned into a woman with the aid of hormones, according to The New York Times.

Shupe expected it would take time to get a driver's license that lists as nonbinary. "If that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes," Shupe told the Statesman Journal in an interview. "We’ve got to start somewhere."

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House said the DMV has been in touch with Shupe about issuing a driver's license with a nonbinary sex designation.

"At this point, we can’t fulfill (the) request," House said. "But we are studying it to figure out what computer system changes and statutory changes might need to be made."

He said the databases that manage DMV information don't support a third kind of sex designation. Changing that may require action by the state Legislature or administrative rule making. It certainly will involve coordination with state and possibly federal groups the DMV shares data with.

Lake Perriguey, Shupe's attorney, said he finds it interesting that it's so difficult to issue a driver's license with a nonbinary sex. "I’m not sure why there’s so much wrapped up in a gender designation. It’s just fascinating," he said.

The transgender community is making inroads towards civil rights and that's what's important, Shupe said.

"People were literally in tears," Shupe said of the court ruling. "There are so many people like me who felt like society doesn’t understand them and I just gave them a legal identity."

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