At stake is either a quarter or half million dollars. Forgot which.
@edgarblythe,
If the final surgery was done after the pair came together, it is possible that the suits will be thrown out of court on a technicality. But, it is Texas and they are extremely homophobic.
The first time I read about this, the article cited a Texas law case that was supposedly relevant to this. I have just searched Chron.com, the Houston newspaper's site, but did not find the same article.
I did find this:
His family’s lawsuit is an attempt to annul the marriage of Araguz, 30, and his wife, Nikki, based on a 1999 Texas case law which prohibits same-sex marriage and says a person’s gender cannot be changed from what it was at birth. Araguz married Nikki in August 2008.
@edgarblythe,
But the mother claims that her son did not know Nikki was born a male. Nikki is saying he did know.
I recognize that his sons by his first wife are the reason behind the suit. However, this just makes everything an embarrassment for the kids.
I think he did know. It sure is odd he supposedly found out Nikki was once male in April and knew this for over 2 months, and did not file for a divorce or an anulment. I believe he was embarassed his family found out and believe he must have been gay. Of course this is just my opinion. I also believe the exwife is a woman scorned. I hope Nikki can pick up her broken heart and public humiliation and move on.
I believe the next legal move will be on Friday. Whether that will produce anything newsworthy, I dew not know.
Today, the judge froze all of the dead firefighter's assets. An article I read ended with this: Legal experts expect this to be a lengthy fight that might finally prove worthy of an ultimate decision by the Texas Supreme Court.
A friend once told me about a porno clip he had downloaded (before you ask, no I haven't seen it, I'm not interested in that sort of thing. Of course. Believe me. Absolutely.) Anyhow it was called "Tranny Surprise". The plot went like this: Guy (American) pays for Thai "mail order bride". Pretty bride arrives at guy's house from airport. Guy, understandably, is eager to check out the merchandise, and commences kissing and trying to undress the bride. Bride is oddly shy and reluctant when he gets to her knickers, which he eventually pulls down to reveal... a penis! He is hugely surprised, but after about 30 seconds reflection, what do you think he does? He gets down on his knees and performs fellatio on the said organ. "Yeah right. Like you would" was my laughing reaction on hearing this plot resume, but just think - these porno movies are created to appeal to a market.
Transgender widow put on trial
The family of Nikki Araguz's dead husband is suing to invalidate the "same-sex" marriage
BY TRACY CLARK-FLORY
AP/Pat Sullivan
Nikki Araguz, transgender wife of a firefighter killed in the line of duty July 4, 2010, during a press conference at her attorneys' office Thursday, July 22, 2010 in Houston.
The day after her husband's funeral, Nikki Araguz was sued -- for being born male. The family of Thomas Araguz III, a 37-year-old firefighter who died in the line of duty, claim that his marriage to Nikki was a fraud because she allegedly concealed her biological sex from her husband. They say he found out just months ago -- after nearly two years of marriage -- and decided to separate from his wife and eventually divorce. The suit also argues that the union is invalid because same-sex marriage is illegal in their home state of Texas.
The details in this case are sparse, even as it goes to trial today, but here's what we do know: She changed her name from Justin to Nikki in 1996. In the request for a name-change, she wrote: "I, Justin Purdue, am a woman with male anatomy, working toward a sex change. I have been living and working as a woman for over one year and seek to make my new name legal and permanent."
Beyond that, very little is clear about Nikki's transition, and she's declined to comment on the matter. It does seem safe to assume that she had her sex legally changed, since the pair were allowed to marry in Texas. Even presuming she underwent sex reassignment surgery, the claim that her husband didn't know that she was born male seems dubious -- male-to-female transitions are notoriously hard to pull off, especially with an intimate live-in partner. She also vehemently denies the accusation of dishonesty: "We had a completely honest marriage, a 100 percent loving, honest marriage," she told the Houston Chronicle.
Ultimately, there are two key issues at play here: 1.) Whether Thomas was induced to marry through fraud, which is grounds for an annulment in Texas, and 2.) Whether the state considers Nikki to be female and capable of legally marrying a man. Without more background, it's hard to speculate on the first issue, but there is some legal precedent on the second matter -- and it certainly isn't good news for Nikki. In the 1999 ruling in Littleton v. Prange, a Texas court invalidated a post-op transgender woman's marriage to a biological woman on the grounds that chromosomal sex reigns supreme. That said, Texas has flip flopped on the issue and shown itself to be majorly gender-confused.
There is no telling how this case will turn out. But I'll tell you one thing: There's nothing like an estate battle to make death seem even darker.
Tracy Clark-Flory is a staff writer at Salon. Follow @tracyclarkflory on Twitter. More Tracy Clark-Flory
@plainoldme,
The above article has a link leading to this one about gender confusion in the Lone Star State:
In 1999, Texas declared couples can only get married if one partner is male and one is female. In 2004 the state banned gay marriage. And then in 2009 the state insisted a post-operative transsexual's newly assigned gender overrides the gender stated on their birth certificate. So how'd the state handle a male-to-female transgender woman who wanted to marry her longtime girlfriend? They let them wed, but no one's sure if they should have.
Virgil Eugene Hill Jr. was born with both male and female organs, yet the birth certificate listed Hill as a male. Hill, after discovering she had ovaries, had a sex-change operation and legally became Sabrina Jeanne Hill in 1991. Then in 1993, Hill met her current girlfriend Therese Bur and the two have lived together ever since. In February, Hill decided to marry Bur so that Bur would receive Hill's spousal military benefits. El Paso denied the union and County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal wrote State Attorney General Greg Abbott to ask WTF she was supposed to do—pay attention to the birth certificate or to the driver's license.
Instead of waiting for an answer, Bur and Hill hightailed it to San Antonio and got hitched there. Bexar County Clerk Gerard C. "Gerry" Rickhoff granted the marriage license based on Hill's birth certificate. He said, "As I recall, he (the judge) said you are what you are at your birth. I don't care what they appear to me or what manner of dress. We are familiar with them, and they are well received when they come to our office."
A video interview with the couple says that they're not looking to change same-sex marriage laws in Texas, but the case will definitely force the state to have to re-examine its contradictory and outdated transgender laws.
Read more:
http://www.queerty.com/texas-doesnt-know-whether-trans-folk-are-male-or-female-so-it-allowed-2-dykes-to-marry-20100506/#ixzz0ujAVrVuJ
