It Doesn’t Make Sense

Texas does not want marriage equality and they went to the extreme of passing a constitution amendment that defines gender based on you birth certificate and you cannot change your birth certificate in Texas. But at the same time they have a law that listed as an acceptable form of identification a driver’s license or a passport.

Transgender widow denied Harris County marriage license
by Kevin Reece
KHOU 11 News
Posted on September 14, 2013

HOUSTON -- The transgender widow of a Wharton County firefighter, whom a judge ruled was not entitled to her late husband’s death benefits because she was born a man, is challenging Texas law once more by attempting to get married again.
   
Nikki Araguz, 38, was the transgender wife of Wharton firefighter Thomas Araguz. He died fighting a blaze at a Wharton County farm in 2010. His family, when they found out Nikki Araguz was born a male named Justin Purdue, challenged her rights to the benefits. They argued that the marriage should be declared null and void because the Texas Constitution effectively bans same sex marriages. A judge agreed that although Araguz had her original California birth certificate amended to show that she is now female, that Texas law goes by the original birth certificate that shows Araguz/Purdue was born male.
[…]
Araguz’ reference to the family code that allows sex change documents as proof of identification for a marriage license was an invalid argument according to Treece. The only way it could be successfully used as a form of identification for the marriage license, under current Texas law, is if Araguz were marrying a woman.

So the idiotology of Texas laws strikes again. They have two contradicting laws; they want to ban same-sex marriage and heaven help us if some trans-person marries a person of their birth gender but at the same time they say you can use a driver license or passport for identification. In other words they are saying if you can pass as a man or woman (wink, wink) you can marry, but if you look like a “tranny” we want to see your original birth certificate. That raises some questions by asking some people for their birth certificate and not other people seem to me to violate Fourteenth Amendment where individuals in similar situations be treated equally by the law.

Take a look at Ms. Araguz in the video can you imagine if she married a woman, they would be a lesbian couple or if a trans-man married a man they would be a gay couple just what the Texas Constitution is trying to ban. What I would like to see is a trans-man and a man apply for a marriage license from the same clerk and see what happens.