Transsexuals and Gay Marriage
[by Dave Parker, PFLAG Transgender Network]
While many in the GLBTI community question the participation of transgenders and transsexuals in the gay marriage debate, reality has them at the forefront.
There are many legal marriages involving transgenders and transsexuals that can be perceived by the rest of society as gay marriages. As such, these marriages can give strength to the argument that gay marriages have no impact on heterosexual marriages.
When a married man or woman transitions without divorcing, the result is an apparent gay marriage. As perceived by the public, the transperson and their spouse – dressed similarly – appear as a same-sex couple.
When a transperson wishes to marry, the situation becomes more complicated.
If their birth state refuses to change the sex designation on their birth certificate (the case in Idaho, Tennessee, and Ohio), they are free to marry a person of the opposite birth sex – no matter how they present, and no matter whether or not they have had sexual reassignment surgery. The result is a legal marriage that appears and is usually perceived as same-sex.
Meanwhile, those who can get their birth sex changed on their birth certificate can marry someone of the opposite birth sex (except in Kansas, Ohio, and Texas) – even though they were both born the same sex.
Many transsexuals either cannot afford complete sexual reassignment surgery or opt not to have complete surgery. For example, many female to male transsexuals have top surgery (mastectomy) and a complete hysterectomy, but make no attempt to have phalloplasty.Their chromosomes and their exterior genitalia still identify them as female. They can legally marry a male – establishing another marriage that meets the criteria (appearance) of a gay marriage. Similarly, male to female transsexuals may never have complete genital surgery, so they can legally marry a woman, again establishing a marriage that is publicly perceived as same-sex.
Of course, when chromosome testing gets involved, the situation gets even murkier. As the Intersex Society of North America (www.isna.org, FAQ) has pointed out, about one in 1667 people have NEITHER XX nor XY chromosomes. Whatever chromosomes are present may not react at all to the hormones that control the development of male and female. They may react inappropriately, resulting in other than “normal” genitalia. There is no solution to this quandary in the Bible - if Eve was made from Adam’s rib, then her chromosomes would have been the same as his.
No definition of marriage, or of man and woman, will keep same-sex marriages from happening. No transsexual marriage has destroyed the institution of marriage. The commitment to marriage is what keeps the institution of marriage strong.