Australia to Recognize Same-Sex Marriages in Some Transgender Cases

towleroad

February 17, 2009

Towleroad reports that "Male-Female married couples in Australia in which a transgender individual makes a physical gender transition so that the couple becomes a same-sex couple will no longer have their marriages annulled by the Australian government later this year." [Link]

TALKING TO FAMILY: Guilty of the Right to Marry

Guest Blogger: Helen Boyd

When my partner first came out as trans to my family and hers, a few years after we were married in Brooklyn’s City Hall, they made sure I was happy and that the person they’d known as their son-in-law was too. They weren’t sure they could manage the change of pronouns very easily, or quickly; they wanted to know what her name would be, and what kinds of documents we would need to change. My brother who is our accountant wanted to know what this might mean for our tax status, and almost everyone asked if her transition from male to female would mean that we were no longer married.

Luckily for us, contract law in the US says we still are, and will be; as long as a contract is legal at the time it’s entered into, it remains legal. We are, as a result, a legally married same-sex couple, or a legally married queer couple, or a marriage made up of two people who, if we met now instead of 11 years ago, would probably not be legally allowed to be married.

Remarkably enough, there are plenty of couples like us in the US; it is an awful lot for the partner of a trans person to make it through transition with the trans person they love, and it would add insult to injury if we could not keep the public, legal recognition of our commitment to each other after having been through so much change together.

Remarkably enough, the sky hasn’t fallen in because we are a legally married family of two. We love our nieces and nephews, all thirteen of them, as much as ever. We love our parents and our siblings and our friends as much as ever, and they love us, and not one has ever considered that we shouldn’t be married, which is as it should be. What we are is tired of feeling so guilty, and so lucky. If everyone were granted the Freedom to Marry, we wouldn’t have to be.


Helen Boyd is an author, educator and publisher of the blog My Husband Betty.

AUSTRALIA: New senator calls for marriage equality

The Australian
August 28, 2008
Labor's new senator Louise Pratt, who makes history as the first member of parliament with a transgendered partner, has used her maiden speech to break from ALP policy and call for marriage equality. [Link]

Shannon Minter And Mara Keisling On Gender Identity Platform Language And Marriage Equality

Pam's House Blend
August 26, 2008
Shannon Minter, of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), talks about what it's like to be a female-to-male transgender man working on LGBT issues (he was the NCLR's key attorney who argued the freedom to marry case before the California Supreme Court, from which Californians won the freedom to marry). [Link]

Marriage Equality Beyond Just Gays And Lesbians

Pam's House Blend
August 4, 2008
I know I'm supporting marriage equality on the micro level by being a part of Vicki's marriage ceremony; I know I'm supporting marriage equality on the macro level by devoting time and treasure to preserve the California Supreme Court ruling granting equal marriage rights for all Californians. [Link]

How Marriage Discrimination Affects Transgender Persons

Over the weekend, the New York Times published a story about the challenges faced by transgender persons as a result of the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. The story highlights the confusion and insecurity faced as a result of the patchwork of state laws surrounding both marriage/partner recognition and transgender recognition. The couples profiled also pose the question of why they should have to ‘downgrade’ to a civil union after being married, reaffirming the inequality of civil unions to marriage.

Learn more about Why Marriage Matters to Transgender Persons

Through Sickness, Health and Sex Change

New York Times
April 27, 2008
A married couple explains the difficulties faced as a result of one of them going through a sex-change operation and discusses the need for national marriage equality. (Link)

Group pushes for marriage equality

Utica Observer Dispatch
April 18, 2008
For Melissa Clark, there has been frustrations, disappointments and discrimination throughout her life. But she has refused to let anything hold her back. Melissa Clark is a transgender woman. At Friday's Pride along the Mohawk meeting to push for equal marriage rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, Clark said she was ready for yet another uphill battle. [Link]

Discriminatory marriage ban dies in MD, but so does trans rights bill

Washington Blade
March 30, 2007
Maryland lawmakers have killed an attempt to write discrimination against same-sex couples into the state constitution for the fourth consecutive year. But the overwhelmingly Democratic legislature failed to pass a measure to bar discrimination against the state's transgender residents and workers. [Link]

BLOG: Who can marry whom?

Leonard Link
March 25, 2007
Is there same-sex marriage in the U.S. outside of Massachusetts? Well, it depends what you mean by "sex," I suppose, when you take into account the difficulties that most states have in accepting the reality of variant gender identity. [Link]

Judge dismisses transgender marriage-fraud lawsuit

PlanetOut
November 17, 2004
Sandy Gast and Georgi Somers are two transwomen who tried to marry. Gast's application for a marriage license led to her arrest for fraud. [Link]

Court denies transgender marriage appeal

PlanetOut
January 15, 2004
Jacob Nash is an FTM with an amended birth certificate who was denied the right to marry his girlfriend in Ohio. [Link]

Double bind: Why a woman in MI is a man in KS, and why it matters

Wall Street Journal
July 7, 2000
This is an article about MTF widow J'Noel Gardiner and her fight to inherit her husband's $2.5 million estate.
KS Supreme Court summary of the Gardiner case. [Link]