Transwoman's Marriage Invalidated (Panet Out)
Transwoman’s Marriage InvalidatedPlanetOut News Staff No one checked her birth certificate when she was married 20 years ago, but the High Court says that what British law has put asunder only Parliament can re-join. It’s up to the Parliament and not the courts to reconsider Britain’s 30-year-old definitions of sex for purposes of marriage, a High Court Justice concluded November 2. Transwoman Elizabeth Bellinger had actually had an official marriage to Michael Bellinger by a registrar who did not examine their birth certificates, but although that union has lasted nearly twenty happy years it is legally invalid. Permission to appeal the ruling was also denied by Justice Johnson, despite his earlier expressions of sympathy and understanding for the plight of Bellinger and other transsexuals. Johnson said, “Conscious as I am of the significance of my decision to 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. … The submission was that this is an area of law in which reform needs to be comprehensive and should be left to Parliament” rather than a series of legal rulings. He cited the Home Office’s recent white paper on the legal issues of transsexuals, commenting that, “The report seems to me to be a major contribution to an understanding of the manifold problems that exist for transsexuals but also of the considerable number of problems that would need to be solved if reform were to be effective.” Bellinger’s attorney Andrea Bayston had argued that the current law defining sex by chromosomal, gonadal and genital criteria is “outdated and unreliable” and omits contemporary understanding that those factors may point to one sex category while psychologically individuals may experience themselves as belonging to the other. Britain has steadfastly refused to revise birth certificates after sex reassignment surgeries, a position that prevailed over a challenge in the European Court of Human Rights, and only a couple whose birth certificates cite opposite sexes can legally marry. Particularly with elections expected in the next six months or so, politicians are in no hurry to take up the issue. Copyright © 1995-2000 PlanetOut Corporation. All copyright & trademark rights reserved |
