Gay Marriage Becomes Transsexual Issue

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/01/012705transMarr.htm

Judi Howden went into her marriage knowing full well that one day her husband might become her wife.

The couple stayed together - even as Howden's husband, Michael, underwent a sex-change operation that transformed him into Mikayla. That surgery also landed them in a murky area where gender and law collide.

Their marriage - once between a man and a woman - is now between a woman and a woman, despite a ban on such unions in 40 states, including New Hampshire.

[Technowitch]

1. Old news... Making the news only because the fundies are frothing...

...at the mouth about same-sex marriage.

Thing is, TS/TG folk have been in a legal limbo for a very long time with respect to marriage issues. The default has typically been defined as "legal gender at the time the marriage license was issued and registered".

Unfortunately, some U.S. states let you change your legal gender, while others don't. This means that a post-op TS person who can get married to one gender legally in one state can only marry the opposite gender in another. Example: A post-op male-to-female TS could marry a man in California, but in Texas her only legal recourse would be to marry a biological female.

Sad, huh? So fixed on these silly labels and rigidly defined dichotomous categories...

[Bridget Burke]

2. Two lesbians married in Texas, back in 2000

One of them had been born a man & went through the surgery. Texas law decrees that one's gender remains the same throughout life, no matter what.

So it was a perfectly legal marriage.

http://houstonpress.com/issues/2000-09-14/news/gray.html

[readmoreoften]

3. Becomes a trans issue?

I think it always has been a trans issue, since most Americans conflate transpersons with homosexuality.

[Q3JR4]

4. That is just f*cked up.

They can marry in one state and in another they're screwed. It's just f*cked up I tell you. :grr:

:argh:

[Rockerdem]

5. These are decent people

Government should be there at their service, not harrassing them. Social justice will eventually arrive because it is the right thing to do. All Democrats should unite to support their cause.

[Zhade]

6. Even some Dems don't like transgendered people.

It's kinda sad to witness (thankfully, I don't think I've seen that attitude here...yet).

[peacebird]

7. Why does anyone CARE about another persons sexuality?

I mean seriously - what does it matter? People are people. I like nice people of all sorts. I dislike mean, nasty, ride and selfish people of all sorts.

I must admit to being disappointed to find out that the really funny, smart, nice (and incredibly sexy..) guy I had the hots for in college was interested only in other men, but I never held it against him. (and sweetie that he was, he said if women interested him then I would have been perfect. I mentioned he was a really nice guy, didn't I?)

Whatever happened to "Live and let live"?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. So if two men fall in love, and wish to marry,

it's ok as long as one of them has an operation, right?
What a bullshit society we live in!

How many thousands of people file for divorce each year because one or both of the partners "changed"? No fault...no contest. They "changed".

Here you have a couple whose marriage survived the most drastic change it could possibly undergo, in spite of the social and legal negativity surrounding them. I'd say Judi and Mikayla have found something most people only fantasize about...true love.

They are an inspiration to everything a marriage should be.