Hello Everyone!
I have been having some thoughts lately in regards to my upcoming marriage. I am currently engaged to my fiance and we will be getting married soon. I have just started to transition from male to female. My question is: Will the marriage be annulled if I have all my legal paperwork changed to female (I live in Michigan)? As I understand, same sex marriage is illegal in Michigan and I fear that if I have all my legal documentation changed to my correct gender the marriage becomes void... Does anyone have any life experience that they can share with us about it? Will I be 'grandfathered' in?
-Jamie
Yes, you will be grandfathered in (but in a state that bans same-sex marriage you might experience some bureaucratic hassle and/or need to out yourself to prove the marriage is valid). The current national policy - not law, unfortunately - is to treat a marriage contract as legal if it was valid at the time it was signed, even if one of the parties subsequently changes gender. However, obviously, you WILL have to get married while retaining the male gender marker, and change it afterward.
I've been in the same boat, except that my state legalized SSM before it was an issue for me. The good news is that now that the feds also recognize SSM, there's no potential challenges in filing federal taxes, etc. In theory, you should also be OK at the state level, but again, keep a copy of your marriage license handy to prove that you were "male" at the time.
The majority of legal cases I have heard of that succeeded against a trans person were in situations where the person changed their gender marker and *then* married; nobody thus far seems to have run afoul of a marriage case in court where their birth gender was challenged.
Quote from: Jamie87 on January 01, 2015, 04:58:45 PM
Hello Everyone!
I have been having some thoughts lately in regards to my upcoming marriage. I am currently engaged to my fiance and we will be getting married soon. I have just started to transition from male to female. My question is: Will the marriage be annulled if I have all my legal paperwork changed to female (I live in Michigan)? As I understand, same sex marriage is illegal in Michigan and I fear that if I have all my legal documentation changed to my correct gender the marriage becomes void... Does anyone have any life experience that they can share with us about it? Will I be 'grandfathered' in?
-Jamie
The validity of a marriage is determined at the time you get married. After that, only death, divorce, or annulment can end a marriage. Gender transition does not automatically cause annulment or anything else to happen.
Getting married after transition in states without same sex marriage is a more complicated legal issue.
Thanks everyone for their replies! This makes me feel about 100x better about my future! I don't mind getting married as a male because, ultimately, I will transition and I have my entire life to spend with the girl I love AND being the correct gender at the same time! Sounds pretty win-win to me!
It all depends on what state you live in. For sure if you never change state document's gender marker, no prob. After that, do your homework.