Thursday 2nd November 2000

Transsexual ’wedding’ ruled invalid

A “married” couple failed today in a bid to have their union recognised in law when a judge refused to declare it valid because both were born men.

One of the middle-aged couple is a transsexual and claims this should make her legally a woman.  However, judge Mr Justice Johnson ruled in the High Court Family Division that the law could not recognise the marriage of Elizabeth Bellinger and her husband Michael because he did not consider she was a female at the time of her marriage.

Mrs Bellinger, who was once married to a woman by whom she fathered children, wed Mr Bellinger at Southwark register office in 1981, the year she underwent a sex change.

In his decision Mr Justice Johnson said: “Conscious as I am of the significance of my decision for Mrs Bellinger and others in her situation, the law and the evidence I have of the present state of medical knowledge lead inexorably to my dismissing her petition.”

Copyright © Associated Newspapers Ltd., 2 November 2000