Judge Grants Petition for Portland Person to Become 'Agender'

Multnomah County Judge Amy Holmes Hehn granted a petition for Patrick Abbatiello from Portland, Ore., to identify as "agender" and change his name to the singular name, Patch, reported NBC News. The site reported that this is likely the first legally agender person in the U.S.

"As a kid, probably starting around age 6, gender didn't make sense to me," Patch said to NBC News. "I was told 'men were this, women were this.' As a teen I learned about transgender people, and that didn't seem like what I was. And then I learned about genderqueer, and that didn't seem like what I was."

Those who identify as agender do not identify with being either a man or a woman. It is "defined as the absence of gender," reported NBC News.

Judge Hehn is the same judge who ruled last year that a trans person is able to change their sex to "non-binary." In an email to NBC News, Judge Hehn said both of her decisions were backed up by facts and the law.

"This is the first time that Sylvia Rivera Law Project has heard about this, and we applaud the court recognizing the person as they are," attorney Kyle Rapinan told NBC News. "We hope that other government agencies will help people self-determine their gender identity, which also includes the option to identify without a gender."