The Freedom To Marry

New York passage of the marriage equality bill was all over the front page on newspapers and the lead story on the evening news across the country. How New York became the sixth and largest state to pass marriage equality. However, down in the Lone Star state they are passing a different marriage bill, one that will ban marriage all together. To deny any marriage at all.

Con: Bills would discriminate against transgendered
Victoria Advocate
Gheni Platenburg
Originally published June 26, 2011

Brendan Gonzalez is single and ready to mingle.

The 30-year-old plant worker from Port Lavaca hopes to eventually meet a woman with whom he can share the rest of his life, preferably one who has a good head on her shoulders and likes boats.
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Despite his optimistic outlook, SB 723 and HB 3098, both of which would disallow a court order recognizing a sex change as a valid identity document to apply for a marriage license, may put an end to Gonzalez's future marriage plans before they even begin.
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Born a female, Gonzalez, who now lives as a man, is in the process of completing his surgeries to become a full-fledged transgender male.
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For transgender advocacy groups, red flags were also raised at Lois Kolkhorst's seemingly back-tracking behavior after she proposed her new bill.

"From our perspective, it seems very strange," said Katy Stewart, chair of Transgender Education Network of Texas and board member of Equality Texas. "Not only did she propose it, the whole legislature agreed to it."
[…]
Although advocates for the transgendered say that even if the legislation is passed, transgendered people could still get marriage licenses using other state and federally issued documents such as a driver's license, school ID, prison ID or passport, they still worry about the possible ramifications of not accepting court orders that officially recognize a sex change.

Texas is not the only state that are trying to block trans-people from getting married.

Consider in Kansas, a trans-person is neither male nor female, but transsexual,

While there are a number of court cases one may use, I will briefly mention two cases found in Robson (2007). The legal precariousness trans-persons may face concerning their sex/gender is particularly highlighted by In re Estate of Gardiner. In this case the courts recognized that J'Noel Gardiner's sex/gender had changed from her male birth-sex, but she was determined to not be female either. The courts asserted that her sex was "transsexual." As such, given that marriage in Kansas was limited to two parties of "opposite sex," Gardiner could not be legally married to a man, or to anyone else, as there was no "opposite" to a transsexual. In the eyes of Kansas she may have been a woman, but she was neither male nor female.[1]

While our gay brothers and lesbian sisters are fighting for their right to marry, trans-people are once again left under the bus.

The statues of transgender marriage varies from state to state, while most states allow marriage based on one’s birth certificate, other states allow marriage based on the birth sex. In addition, in some states once you are married, it does not matter if you change your gender, you will still be married.

[1] Problematizing Sex/Gender with Transgender Marriage Law
Daniel Farr
The Radical Teacher
No. 88 (Summer 2010), pp. 74-75