Texas Lawmakers May Cancel Transgender Marriage Rights
Two years after Texas become one of the last states to allow transgendered people to use proof of their sex change to get a marriage license, Republican lawmakers are trying to roll back the clock.
A bill by State Senator Tommy Williams of Houston and State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham would require the state to recognize a 1999 court ruling that a person's gender is assigned at birth, and sticks with the person throughout his or her life.
The ruling said, in the eyes of the law, a man is always a man and a woman is always a woman, even if he or she has surgery that changes their gender.
Senator Williams says he’s simply trying to clean up the 2009 law and bring it into line with the Texas Constitution, which clearly defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Advocates for the transgendered say the bill is pure discrimination and would put their legally-granted marriages in danger of being nullified if challenged in court.
via Texas lawmakers may remove transgender marriage rights | Religion | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.
One transgendered woman says changing the law this way means women like her who have had gender reassignment and reconstructive surgery to become male won't be allowed to marry their heterosexual female partners.