marriage rights for transsexuals

Slate (which is always provocative reading) has an excellent summary on same-sex marriage issues for transsexuals. It even opens up the difficult question of what "same sex" means for transsexuals--birth sex, or surgically altered sex? There is no consistency, and it points out much of the absurdity of what's going on these days for gay and lesbian marriages.

A long time ago, I learned to reframe the whole straight-versus-gay argument so that the whole issue just goes away, and can even make sense in a transgendered relationship. People are either attracted to men, or attracted to women. There's nothing wrong with either of those; half the people in the world feel at least one of those attractions. Think about it.

Anyway, what the article speculates on, but doesn't research, is what happens to couples where one partner changes sex after marriage. Not only are such marriages still valid (the article is correct on this), but there are hundreds of such marriages in effect in the US today, which means there are hundreds of fully legal same-sex marriages already in existence.

The article also has a great pointer to summaries of how to change name and sex on birth certificates, state by state. For people who were born in a state which refuses to change legal sex, it's worth noting that the federal government will change your sex on your passport, with appropriate documentation from your surgeon. Practically any organization that wants to see your birth certificate as proof of citizenship (or gender) will accept a passport in place of a birth certificate. This is one way to get around the constraints of overly-restrictive state laws.

Diane