Sara Kelly Keenan was pleasantly surprised when Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Robert B. Atack recently approved her request for gender reassignment.
The former paralegal, who used to work in the very courtroom she appeared in, anticipated a battle to change her gender. She came armed with a seven-page brief outlining the ways that California was in violation of its own laws by denying her the right to appropriately identify herself as a "non-binary."
When Atack gave her the stamp of approval September 26, Keenan, 55, who uses female pronouns, was overjoyed.
Keenan was joined in court by Toby Adams, an attorney for the Intersex and Gender Queer Recognition Project. Adams reviewed Keenan's brief and helped her keep her documents in order as she presented her case to the judge.
"She really had a very strong case," said Adams, who Keenan contacted after she had filed her case with the court. "We really felt good about both Sara's case as well as Santa Cruz County being a liberal place where we thought we would have a good shot at winning."
Win they did and in the process Keenan also made history, becoming the second individual in the U.S. to be legally granted a court order to change her gender identity to non-binary.
In June, Jamie Shupe, 52, became the first individual in the U.S. to legally change their gender identity to non-binary in Oregon.
In Santa Cruz, it was the first time Adams saw a judge physically alter court documents to correct Keenan's gender to non-binary.
"It's very significant that he did that because now judges in other counties can say, 'Oh, well I'm not the first one, somebody has already done it,'" said Adams.
"I'm really impressed with Sara and the willingness to put herself out there and ask for what's right and to demand for what's right," added Adams. "All of these people who are seeking these gender changes are very, very brave."
A path forward
Shupe inspired Keenan, who is now a life coach, to file her own case to legally change her gender identity on her identification documents.
"It demonstrated that this was possible to do by court order and I needn't wait for the Legislature," said Keenan, who has been advocating for intersex rights for the past several years and speaks regularly in schools about gender identity and intersex issues.
Keenan didn't think that getting her gender changed would be as easy as drawing the appropriate boxes on California's gender change form and submitting it to the court. She imagined that it would be a long battle changing California's laws to include intersex or non-binary gendered people under the umbrella of protections for gender identity alongside transgender individuals, she said.
Shupe changed that expectation.
Keenan believed that she had a chance to win her case because several years ago she discovered that she is "quite literally" intersex. Her chemical and physical makeup is male and female. She has male chromosomes and her anatomy is female, a condition that is known as Swyer syndrome.
Before she left the courtroom with her order, Atack expressed concern to Keenan regarding the long road she had to walk down changing all of her documents, she said. Keenan is aware and prepared to take on the challenge.
Next steps
"Now we have to fight for its implementation in the various state departments that are currently violating the civil rights of people who are non-binary in gender," said Keenan, who purposefully chose the non-binary term.
"I specifically chose non-binary so that all genderqueer people and trans people who identify as non-binary could be welcomed under this umbrella with this designation," said Keenan.
In a swift and unprecedented move, Keenan and Shupe have received acknowledgement from their respective state motor vehicle departments to update their driver's licenses to properly reflect their gender as non-binary.
Both departments stated that they were in the process of forming committees to help them address their forms and systems to enable the option for non-binary gender on driver's licenses, said Keenan and Shupe.
In an email, the California Department of Motor Vehicles' Office of Public Affairs stated, "We are aware of the recent legal proceeding regarding non-binary gender and will be carefully reviewing the issue. This review will include collaborating with other states and the federal government to identify best practices and options for how to proceed."
Shupe forwarded a letter from the Oregon Department of Transportation that confirms its DMV intends to adopt an administrative rule that, among other things, clarifies the requirements for requesting a change to a sex designation on an existing DMV record.
Keenan, a resident of Ben Lomond in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and who has been married to David Keenan for nearly 30 years, is currently planning to travel to New York, where she was born, to change her gender on her birth certificate. She hopes to eventually to be able to change it on her passport.
Currently, intersex activist Dana Zzyym, who is being represented by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, has a case against the U.S. State Department to change her gender to non-binary on her passport.
"I've got a court order that the state is not currently able to honor and I won't rest until it is honored," said Keenan.
"I really want more people to know that this option exists for them, if this is a truthful gender identification for them," said Keenan, who explained that she also had to submit a physician's affidavit declaring her non-binary.
She said that she hopes state forms will be amended.
"It's time for not only society at large but our own community to recognize that we are here too," said Keenan.
Veteran intersex activist David Strachan, 69, a non-binary individual who has been pushing for intersex rights for more than 20 years, expressed gratitude for the sudden gains.
"I feel hopeful that more will come," Strachan wrote in an email from New York responding to the Bay Area Reporter . "I am grateful for the courage Jamie and Sara had in doing what they did.
"My hope is that LGBT people will finally recognize that we exist and include us in their work for all our human rights," he added.
Adams and Keenan are now working on helping others process their gender to non-binary.
For more information, visit http://www.intersexrecognition.org.