Home » Public » Trans Political Issues » More confusion in the state of Pandemonium --er Texas
| More confusion in the state of Pandemonium --er Texas [message #110252] |
Sat, 14 August 2010 10:26 |
 CarolynnL 
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
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The Statesman (Austin, Texas):
Editorial:
"Legislature must straighten out gender confusion"
Something for Texas legislators' 2011 to-do list: Take another stab at defining
which government-issued documents can be presented by marriage license
applicants.
Seems simple enough, doesn't it? It's not. Buckle up for a bumpy ride through
the current confusing situation.
Under current law, revised in 2009, marriage license applicants can have
officially recognized forms of identification that offer diametrically opposed
declarations of gender. That can be a problem because to get married in Texas,
couples have to include one of each.
So what happens when two people who appear to be women show up for a marriage
license and one of them, despite having undergone a gender reassignment
procedure, has a birth certificate saying she is a male? What happens is
confusion, and that's why, when confronted with these facts, El Paso County
officials understandably sought guidance from the state's top lawyer.
That lawyer, Attorney General Greg Abbott, recently declined to opine, citing an
equally confounding Wharton County pending lawsuit that turns on a similar
question.
"It is the policy of this office to refrain from issuing an attorney general
opinion on a question that we know to be the subject of pending litigation,"
Nancy S. Fuller, chairwoman of Abbott's opinion committee, told El Paso County
Attorney Jo Anne Bernal in a letter last Friday.
That leaves El Paso County officials confused as to what to do in situations
such as the one encountered in February when Sabrina J. Hill and Therese Bur
sought a marriage license. Hill's New York birth certificate certifies birth as
a male. Texas law says a birth certificate is an acceptable form of
identification for marriage license applicants. Sign the forms, throw the rice
and wish the couple well, right?
It's not that simple.
Hill also presented an Arizona driver's license (also an acceptable form of ID
in Texas for a marriage license, as are all out-of-state driver's licenses) that
lists her as female. Hill, born a hermaphrodite (with male and female sex
organs), also submitted a Washington state court order from the name-change
petition granted after gender reassignment surgery that made her a female.
In her request for an attorney general's opinion, Bernal spelled out the
confused state of Texas law. She cited a San Antonio appellate court decision
that rejected an amended birth certificate that changed the gender of a person
who was born male but later underwent a sex-change procedure.
"The court held that, as a matter of law, (the person) was immutably a male,"
Bernal told Abbott.
She noted that Bexar County officials, relying on that ruling, subsequently
issued marriage licenses to several female couples (including Hill and Bur) in
which one of the partners had undergone a gender reassignment procedure but had
a birth certificate identifying them as male.
The appellate court ruling came in siding with a physician who argued that a
widow who sued for wrongful death of her spouse had no standing because her
original birth certificate identified her as a male. Two males, the physician
successfully argued, cannot legally be married in Texas. And, the ruling said,
that left the plaintiff -- despite an amended birth certificate issued after
sex-change surgery -- with no legal grounds for the lawsuit.
The appeals court seemed unsatisfied with its ruling but indicated it had no
choice.
"In our system of government, it is for the Legislature, should it choose to do
so, to determine what guidelines should govern the recognition of marriages
involving transsexuals, " the court said, adding that "the need for legislative
guidelines is particularly important in this case."
Texas lawmakers, at the urging of the County and District Clerks Association of
Texas, last year sought to clarify what forms of identification can be used for
marriage license applications. As approved by lawmakers, HB 3666 by Rep. Lois
Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, wound up listing 19 forms.
(Side note: We are amused that a concealed handgun license is on the list. It
can be good to know if your future spouse is packing.)
No. 6 on the list is "an original or certified copy of a birth certificate
issued by a bureau of vital statistics for a state or a foreign government."
No. 8 is "an original or certified copy of a court order relating to the
applicant's name change or sex change."
In the modern world in which we live, Nos. 6 and 8 can be contradictory as to
gender. And, thanks to the ruling by the San Antonio appellate court, amended
birth certificates don't count.
Chris Steinbach, Kolkhorst's chief of staff, told us the 2009 effort to simplify
things got complicated when it got caught up in legislative battles related to
immigration. All the more reason for lawmakers to take another stab at this.
We sympathize with the plight of county officials.
"Unfortunately, the ambiguity in the law and confusion for the county clerk
remains," Bernal said in expressing disappointment in Abbott's lack of action.
It is confusing. It is ambiguous. It should be cleared up by Texas lawmakers.
One approach would be legislative recognition of amended birth certificates that
officially note gender change. It seems ludicrous to move forward with a state
law that allows folks to present legitimate IDs that differ on their gender.
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