Judge Approves Petition to Be Legally 'Genderless'

People are free to believe anything they wish in the United States. Irrational ideas only become an issue when they impact our legal system, since that means they have the potential to enforce the stupid on the rest of us.

For example, a judge in Portland has ruled that an individual is now legally “genderless”:

The March 10 decision, reported for the first time on Thursday, involved a 27-year-old who was born male but claimed to identify with no gender whatsoever. Judge Amy Holmes, who approved the petition, also last year approved a “non-binary” gender designation for another Portland resident.

The 27-year-old formerly known as Patrick Abbatiello, now legally designated agender, also got legal approval to change names, now going only by “Patch,” no surname. That name also serves as a pronoun, Patch explained to the local NBC affiliate this week.

“Even gender-neutral pronouns don’t feel as if they fit me,” Patch said. “I feel no identity or closeness with any pronouns I’ve come across. What describes me is my name.”

This is, of course, what happens when you create a society that makes decisions based on subjective feelings rather than objective reality.

Patch doesn’t feel like a male or a female, so the judge has enabled this behavior by giving it legal sanction. Judge Holmes clearly buys into the idea of there being more than two genders despite gender being based on biology, so it’s likely she’ll be presented with more of these petitions.

The problem is that there isn’t any scientific evidence to support the existence of more genders. All we have to go on are people’s claims that they “identify” as something else, and an oppressive cultural environment surrounding this where even questioning it is taken as outright bigotry. Suggesting the opinion that believing you are is “agender” is a mental disorder that deserves compassionate treatment, and not lockstep agreement, is forbidden. Judge Holmes and Patch, by creating the legal fiction that “genderless” actually exists (pro tip: if you have chromosomes, you’re not “genderless”), aren’t doing anyone any favors.

That Patch also wants his proper name to also be his pronoun because none of the others “feel” right just illustrates how self-centered the whole idea is. You’ll just have to learn that you’re not actually the center of the universe.