Via NBC:
When Oregon resident Jamie Shupe quietly walked into a Portland, Oregon, courthouse this June and received permission to change their gender from female to “non-binary,” they did so without the assistance of any nonprofit or national transgender advocacy group.
Shupe’s successful legal change to a third gender stunned the national LGBTQ community; many intersex and gender nonconforming people had dreamed of someday being able to opt out of “male” and “female” gender designations, but no one thought it could be done so easily.
In the six months since Shupe became the first legally non-binary U.S. citizen, the amount of people petitioning courts for third gender designations has increased exponentially. Some were born intersex (with female and male sex characteristics), while others identify on a spectrum of gender that doesn’t fit neatly into either of the categories currently available on identity documents.