{"id":1394,"date":"2012-06-21T06:20:10","date_gmt":"2012-06-21T06:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/?p=1394"},"modified":"2023-01-09T14:45:47","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T21:45:47","slug":"prop-102-and-the-transgendered-spouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/21\/prop-102-and-the-transgendered-spouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Prop 102 and the Transgender Spouse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the passage of Proposition 102 in Arizona, the Arizona Constitution now provides that &#8220;<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 hundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-overflow:visible;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\">[o]nly a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.&#8221;\u00a0 Arizona Constitution, Article XXX.\u00a0 Texas and many other states have similar laws or constitutional provisions.\u00a0 A few years ago, a Texas court refused to grant a\u00a0dissolution to two men who were legally married in Massachusetts.\u00a0 The Texas court reasoned that since under Texas law the marriage wasn&#8217;t recognized in the first place, a Texas court could not exercise jurisdiction to grant a dissolution of that unrecognized marriage.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>But\u00a0people who can legally marry should be able to then legally divorce, shouldn&#8217;t they?\u00a0 Well, maybe not.\u00a0 At least not in any state they may\u00a0choose.\u00a0 Under the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (&#8220;DOMA&#8221;), no state is required to give full faith and credit to a gay marriage validly performed in another state.\u00a0 This is why states like Texas and Arizona do not have to recognize gay marriages validly performed in other states and why the Texas court had the authority to decline to grant a divorce to a gay couple validly married in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n<p>Maryland, however,\u00a0recently decided this issue opposite from Texas and granted a divorce to a resident gay couple who were legally married in another state.\u00a0\u00a0The Maryland court granted the divorce\u00a0despite the fact that\u00a0Maryland law does not allow gay marriage.\u00a0\u00a0 Though not legally required to do so, the Maryland court recognized the marriage validly performed in a different state and granted the divorce.\u00a0\u00a0Massachussets has now removed its divorce\u00a0residency requirement specifically to allow gay couples from other states who married in Massachusetts\u00a0to get a divorce\u00a0in Massachusetts\u00a0if their home states will not grant them one.<\/p>\n<p>This is an evolving area of the law that seems to raise endless questions without a lot of clear answers.\u00a0 For example, in Arizona,\u00a0what effect does\u00a0one spouse&#8217;s undergoing gender reassignment during marriage\u00a0 have on the validity of\u00a0his marriage under Arizona law?\u00a0 If the Arizona Constitution is applied literally, the marriage would not be valid or recognized once the gender reassignment surgery is complete because the marriage would not then be between &#8220;one man and one woman&#8221;, even though the couple consisted of one man and one woman when the marriage\u00a0began.<\/p>\n<p>If one of the spouses then sought a divorce in Arizona, would the divorce be denied because the marriage was not &#8220;valid or recognized&#8221;?\u00a0 How would the couple&#8217;s property be divided between them?\u00a0 Would they be left to a civil action to divide property?\u00a0 Would community property laws not apply?\u00a0 Would there be no claim for spousal maintenance even when spousal maintenance would have been warranted absent the gender reassignment by one spouse?<\/p>\n<p>I do not believe the scenario I described above is hypothetical.\u00a0 I am confident it has already happened in Arizona and will continue to happen.\u00a0 I suspect most of the couples in this situation&#8211;where one spouse undergoes gender reassignment surgery during the marriage&#8211;have no interest in bringing their cases to the newspaper headlines.\u00a0 They have no desire to set a precedent or make &#8220;new law.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 If they are unable to continue to live together as married partners, they\u00a0likely want to get a divorce quietly and inexpensively and move on with their lives like any other divorcing couple wants to do.<\/p>\n<p>My advice to\u00a0my client, whether my client\u00a0were the spouse who had gender reassignment surgery or the spouse who did not,\u00a0would be to file the divorce as though the gender reassignment had not occurred.\u00a0 If neither spouse made the gender reassignment an issue in the case, it is likely the trial court would allow the divorce without any problem.\u00a0 The status of the parties as &#8220;husband&#8221;\u00a0and &#8220;wife&#8221;\u00a0at the time\u00a0the marriage\u00a0occurred would be used in all the court filings.\u00a0 The court filings do not require a statement of gender&#8211;maleness or femaleness.\u00a0 The court papers simply\u00a0identify the parties as &#8220;husband&#8221; and &#8220;wife.&#8221;\u00a0 Simply ignoring the gender reassignment for purposes of the divorce is likely the best approach.\u00a0 In time I expect some reported Arizona cases or a U.S. Supreme Court ruling will bring answers to this unsettled area of the law.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2012 by Scoresby Family Law \u2013 J. Kyle Scoresby, P.C. All rights reserved.<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the passage of Proposition 102 in Arizona, the Arizona Constitution now provides that &#8220;[o]nly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[43,50,77,79],"class_list":["post-1394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-stuff","tag-divorce","tag-gay-marriage","tag-property-debt-division","tag-proposition-102"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Prop 102 and the Transgender Spouse - Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/21\/prop-102-and-the-transgendered-spouse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prop 102 and the Transgender Spouse - Arizona Divorce &amp; 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