Jamie Shupe

Jamie Shupe: Oregon''s first legally nonbinary person. Photo courtesy of Jamie Shupe

Oregon may soon become the first U.S. state to allow residents to identify as "nonbinary," neither male nor female, on their driver licenses and identification cards.

Transgender Oregonians say the change would validate their identities and make them safer as they hand over their licenses at restaurants, health clinics and airports. Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles officials say they have had no opposition to the change, which they first announced plans to carry out last summer.

Officials will host a public hearing on the proposed change Wednesday in Portland. If approved, Oregonians could change their licenses and identification cards beginning this summer. Instead of "F" or "M," their licenses would display "X" under sex.

"Some people don't identify as male or female," said Amy Herzfeld-Copple, the co-executive director of

. "We're excited by the DMV proposal because it's an important step in recognizing what we already know to be true. Gender is a spectrum."

DMV Nonbinary Gender Hearing

When: May 10, 6 p.m.

Where: The Multnomah Building, 501 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Last year, a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge allowed Portland Army veteran

. Legal experts believed the ruling was a first in the United States.

"We have a system in much of this nation that is forcing intersex, transgender and nonbinary people to make a choice between male or female, when it doesn't fit them or accurately describe them," Shupe said. "In the case of people like me, it's like making a mixed-race kid identify as white, and pretend to be white and have the doctors trying to make them white."

An estimated 20,000 Oregonians identify as transgender, according to The Williams Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles.

of 28,000 transgender people found that more than a third identified as neither male nor female.

Since Shupe's win, judges in Polk and Benton counties have allowed transgender Oregonians to change their legal gender to neither male nor female.

After winning in court, Shupe's lawyer sent the Multnomah County judge's order to Oregon's motor vehicles department. Legally, Shupe was neither male nor female, and Shupe wanted a driver license that reflected that.

State officials said they couldn't offer Shupe that yet.

"We needed time," said department of motor vehicles spokesman David House. The state and local law enforcement agencies had to update their computer systems to allow a nonbinary designation, House said.

There is some precedent: The Canadian province of Ontario began issuing gender-neutral licenses and health cards earlier this year. California legislators are considering

that would allow drivers to register as "nonbinary."

And Shupe, who retired from the Army in 2000 as a sergeant first class, noted that military identification cards don't list a person's gender.

"After serving honorably and having earned the Army achievement medal eight times, the Army commendation medal four times, and the meritorious service medal twice in my service to this nation, I think I deserve the right to properly classify my identity here on the homeland," Shupe said.

In Oregon, the change does not require a legislative vote, House said, because state law does not stipulate that a driver has to choose male or female. If the rule passes, applicants will not need a court order to change their licenses, House said. They will have to pay replacement or renewal fees.

More than 50 people attended a public hearing in Eugene earlier this month. Twenty-two of them testified, all in favor of the proposed administrative rule change. No one testified against it.

"ID cards are something we show at banks, to new bosses, to police, to bartenders," said Danno Mannino, a Southern Oregon resident who identifies as genderfluid. "And every time I have to pull it out of my wallet, my heart sinks that my true name and gender are not acknowledged on it yet. ... The smallest of interactions, as they build and build, weigh heavy on the hearts of our community. We are hurting and are asking to be considered."

Shupe attended Eugene's hearing and fought back tears as people related their struggles during the public testimony. Most cried as they told their stories, Shupe said. Several said they had attempted suicide as they tried and failed to fit into a gendered society.

"Oregon is fixing this," Shupe said later.

As Shupe left the hearing, one of the testifiers pressed a note into Shupe's hand. Like Shupe, Amiko-Gabriel Blue had gone to court to identify legally as non-binary. A Medford judge ruled against Blue. The license change would bring Blue one step closer to a legal designation that matches Blue's identity.

"Thank you," Blue wrote, "for helping to save so many of our lives."

-- Casey Parks

503-221-8271

cparks@oregonian.com;