Legal chaos reigns in same-sex unions
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7164233.htmlBy MARIA C. GONZALEZ
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Aug. 21, 2010, 3:32PM
Many Texans are so afraid of gay, lesbian, bisexual and especially transgender persons that what would be simple probate matters to others turn into media fodder for us.
The Nikki Araguz case going on in Wharton County is another example of how the systematic disenfranchisement of members of my community has turned one woman's private pain into a very public indignity. Firefighter Thomas Araguz died, and his wife and children would normally receive his death benefits. Perhaps like many in-laws who do not approve of their children's choice of spouse, Araguz's parents do not want their daughter-in-law to receive anything. They have hired a lawyer who is using a 1999 San Antonio appeals court case, Littleton v. Prange, to argue that Nikki Araguz was not Thomas Araguz's wife because there was no marriage. Littleton held that even if one's gender has been surgically corrected, one nonetheless remains the gender identified on his/her birth certificate. In other words, Littleton says that gender cannot be legally changed for the purposes of marriage.
