Graves does not, for scientific reasons. He has concluded a person cannot really change his or her sex because the person's DNA stays the same.

In an unusual move, the judge sought out an expert opinion from a physician.

“A so-called sex-change surgery can make one appear to be the opposite sex, but in fact they are nothing more than an imitation of the opposite sex,” the judge wrote in a seven-page order last year.

“Here, petitioner has not even had the surgery by which his sex purports to be changed. Thus, based on the foregoing and the DNA evidence, a sex change cannot make a man a woman or a woman a man all of which, the Court finds is sufficient in and of itself to deny petitioner's request for a name change,” Graves wrote.