In yet another rare legal suit, the courts have found themselves in another battle to rule against or in favour of a marriage involving same-sex parties. A court ruling in Arizona rejected a divorce application for a transsexual man who gave birth to three children. After one of the parties undergoing a double mastectomy surgery, a nine year-old marriage is faced with troubles that have seen a need for divorce. A transgender man who underwent a double mastectomy but retained the female reproductive organs has since given birth to three children.
However, his mirage is at stake after an application for divorce was filed. Making a ruling on the case, an Arizona jury failed to rule in favour of the application. The Maricopa County Family Court Judge argued that he had no jurisdiction that could compel him to approve the divorce because the evidence was not substantial enough to prove that the transgender man was really a man when he married in Hawaii.
Although this man was determined to put an end to his marriage, the divorce plan was stalled because the judge could not get a legal authority that could define a man as a person who can reproduce and give birth as women do. When giving out the ruling, the judge reiterated that the decision on the ruling was not pegged on conclusions that it involved a same-sex marriage affair with one party being a transsexual male, but because the parties did not prove that the man was really transsexual male as at the time when they were served with a marriage certification or license.
The ruling also did not incorporate the aspect that Arizona jurisdiction allowed a person born female to get married to another female after a surgery to change the sex has been done. The pregnant man was born in Hawaii at Tracy Lehuanani Lagondino, in Oahu. In 1997, he began undergoing testosterone treatment and in 2002, double mastectomy and chest reconstructions were done.
The transsexual man changed his driver’s license in Hawaii to reflect that he was a man and this was approved by a Hawaiian court. The man married in early 2003 and he became pregnant because his wife could not have children. With use of a donated sperm, the transgender man gave birth to children who are now 2 years, 3 and 4 from the youngest to the oldest respectively.
After their marriage, the couple relocated to Arizona where they currently live. The marriage has attracted a big attention and has become the center of talks in big shows like the Oprah Winfrey, and Larry King. In addition the transgender man has scoped a winning spot on list of 10 most Fascinating People featured on Barbara Walter in 2008. The man has also published a book entitled Labor Of Love: The Story of One Man's Extraordinary Pregnancy.
Although the National Center for Lesbian Rights did not involve itself in this legal suit, it said that the judicial courts have declared marriage ties made up of a transsexual person as invalid in the few legal cases, which have been filed across the country. The National Center for Lesbian Rights also pointed out that some of those cases had significantly different legal issues and factual aspects far much deeper than the case of the this transsexual man.
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