A Texas judge has officially signed his order voiding a marriage between a deceased firefighter and his transgender widow, having ruled in the case that because she was born male, the marriage was a “same-sex marriage” and not valid. Transgender Texans can use their official change-of-sex documentation to apply for a marriage license, so it’s currently unclear who exactly they are allowed to marry.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Who can you marry?
As I've said before, the shameful way the transgender community is treated in marriage points out the absurdity of laws forbidding loving couples from marrying. From ThinkProgress:
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4 comments:
At least the widow can take comfort with all the Religious Right spokespeople who are screaming about judicial activism in this case, right?
Oh.
On a less snarky note, my heart goes out to this poor woman and I hope she wins her appeal.
It's obscene, really, isn't it?
This case is a somewhat problematic one, as the woman and her husband were separated at the time he died.
Certainly the principle (we treat transgender spouses sucktastically) holds. Just that the question "Was she really his spouse, at the time of his death?" is at issue. [Especially when there's a will/death-benefits involved, contested by the deceased's children]
JCF, if the judge finds that the reason she was not his spouse, was her transition, then it doesn't matter if they were separated. As I read this the judge has said someone MtF can't marry a man. And I'll bet ya, she wouldn't be allowed to marry a woman either.
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