Oregon Becomes First State to Issue Gender–Neutral IDs 

Oregon residents seeking a driver’s license or state ID card can now choose among three gender options when applying: male, female, and X. On Monday, Oregon became the first U.S. state to offer the program, which legally recognizes non–binary gender options on state IDs.

Oregon follows Washington, D.C., which issued its first non–binary gender option IDs that don’t require third–party verification last week. Oregon’s Transportation Commission passed the history–making new ID rule last month.

At the time, Gov. Kate Brown said, “We must proactively break down the barriers of institutional bias,” according to NBC.

“In a summary of the public comment period published by the Oregon Transportation Department, non-binary people said having a third gender option made them feel safer, while others expressed pride in Oregon as a leader in the realm of equality,” NBC reported when the new rule was adopted.

In May, Brown also signed a bill to make the process more private for transgender people to change their birth certificate records.

Oregon’s push for the new ID option was helped along by Army veteran Jamie Shupe, who last month became the first person in the U.S. to legally change their gender to non–binary. Earlier this year, an Oregon judge granted agender status to Portland resident Patch, who became the first person to be legally recognized as agender in the U.S.