Summary Thomas Beatie was born a woman and later underwent a double-mastectomy to become a man.
PHOENIX (AP) - A judge on Friday refused to grant a divorce for a transgender man who gave birth to three children after beginning to change his sex from female.
Maricopa County Family Court Judge Douglas Gerlach ruled that Arizona s ban on same-sex marriages prevents Thomas Beatie s 9-year union from being recognized as valid.
Thomas Beatie was born a woman and later underwent a double-mastectomy, and began testosterone hormone therapy and psychological treatment to become a man, but he retained female reproductive organs and gave birth to three children.
Gerlach said he had no jurisdiction to approve a divorce because there s insufficient evidence that Beatie was a man when he married Nancy Beatie in Hawaii. He said the Beaties never provided records to fully explain what Thomas Beatie actually had done and not done to become a man.
"The decision here is not based on the conclusion that this case involves a same-sex marriage merely because one of the parties is a transsexual male, but instead, the decision is compelled by the fact that the parties failed to prove that (Thomas Beatie) was a transsexual male when they were issued their marriage license," he wrote in Friday s ruling.
A spokesman for Beatie, Ryan Gordon, said the judge s comments came as a shock and that Beatie plans to appeal the ruling. He said Beatie legally was married as a man and never was required to disclose that he retained female reproductive organs when applying for and being granted a new birth certificate in Hawaii as a man. He said Beatie halted testosterone treatments so that he could give birth to his children.
"It s unfortunate that the judge out here doesn t recognize marriage in another state," Gordon said.
Beatie is eager to end his marriage, but the couple s divorce plans stalled last summer when Gerlach said he was unable to find legal authority defining a man as someone who can give birth.
Gerlach s ruling didn t address whether Arizona law allows a person who was born female to marry another female after undergoing a sex change operation.
A separate ruling issued Friday by Gerlach sets guidelines on how the Beaties will co-parent their three children and grants them joint authority in making legal decisions. Thomas Beatie is required to pay nearly $240 a month to Nancy Beatie for child support, but she won t get alimony because the marriage was declared invalid.
Nancy Beatie s attorney, David Higgins, praised Gerlach for the thoroughness of the decision on the marriage, although it wasn t the one she had hoped for.
"He still sees a same-sex marriage, but he gave us all the rulings that we re asking for as far as the children," Higgins said.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights, which isn t involved in the Beatie divorce case, has said courts have declared marriages involving a transgender person invalid in a handful of cases across the country, but that those cases had different factual and legal issues than those in the Beatie case.
