There have been so many threads on Same Sex Marriage in recent months that I despair at finding an answer to my question through the archives.
A recent hallway conversation with Male to Female coworker who is married has got me thinking. When is he legally considered a woman? At some point he will have to be, and the law does have an interest in defining this point for several reasons. For one, gender is a protected class, so this relates to hiring and firing practices, not to mention the potential of a sexual harrasment suit based upon what bathroom she uses. Is there any case law?
Secondly, assuming that he considered a she at some point, and that she was married to a woman before the operation, does the marriage become automatically invalidated due to SSM laws (I am in Virginia)? This is a complex twist on an already wierd situation.
Thanks, in advance. Oh, and since I don’t participate in too many of these style converstations I cannot remember the names of our at least two sex-changed members (except for the one who was lying). If you could drop their names I might ask them to join the discussion.
IANAL etc. The question hasn’t been adjudicated in Virginia AFAIK. The states in which it has been that I know of, Kansas and Texas, have both ruled that for purposes of marriage sex is determined at birth by chromosomes and can’t be legally changed. In each of those states, marriages between birth males and MTFs were invalidated. Also in each of those states there have been marriages solemnized between birth females and MTFs, because under the court rulings they were considered mixed-sex couples.
But gender (sex) is not determined by chromosones, just influnced and is it very possiable to have a XX male and a XY female. Then again you are talking about the law, which doesn’t always consider reality.
Expressing an opinion that is stretching the GQ rules, the idea that there must be a “legal” change of gender at some point and that laws should regulate marriage on the basis of the genders of the participants in that marriage is essentially the neoconservatives creating a problem for themselves to solve. I suspect that there exists not one transgendered person in the world who believes that the courts or the legislature has the right to define what gender he or she is, and very few if any who believe that SSM should be prohibited.
And I’ll point out that one of our transgendered women is purely sick and tired of being “poster child” in such discussions, and prefers her name be kept out of them as of the last I heard her express an opinion on it.
Back when I worked at MicroWarehouse, I worked with a fine fellow named Roy. Roy’s wife I believe is Charlotte. At one point and I don’t know the best way to phrase this, started to process to become a woman. Roy became Jennifer, she dressed as a woman at work, had hormone therapy, we addressed her as a woman. Jennifer remained married to Charlotte. I do know know if Jennifer had the surgeery yet to become a woman, but as far as I know New Jersey would still consider them married
I wish I didn’t lose contact with Jenn because she was a great person to be around.
Thanks guys. I agree that the whole idea of legislating marriage is silly, but currently we do so I was wondering how this situation would play out, which apparently it has in several states. Otto, Kanicbird brings up a good point. Do you have access to the wording of these laws? According to them is it illegal for a woman with XY chromosomes (which does on occasion happen) to marry a man?