An Arizona judge has refused to grant a divorce to Thomas Beatie, a transgender man who gave birth to three children, ruling that there was insufficient evidence he was legally male at the time of his marriage. The state bans same-sex marriage, and the judge determined the union may have been between two women.
Maricopa County Family Court Judge Douglas Gerlach wrote that the couple failed to prove Mr Beatie was male when they wed. Mr Beatie, who has lived as a man for decades, is legally male but retained his female reproductive organs and bore children because his wife was infertile.
A spokesman for Mr Beatie, Ryan Gordon, said the ruling came as a shock and that his client plans to appeal. Mr Beatie hopes to marry his current girlfriend. Mr Gordon noted that Mr Beatie was legally married as a man and never had to disclose his retained organs when applying for a male birth certificate in Hawaii.
Mr Beatie began testosterone in 1979, underwent a double mastectomy in 2002, and had his birth certificate changed to male. He halted testosterone to become pregnant after discovering his wife could not conceive. Nancy Beatie's lawyer, David Higgins, said the decision was thorough but not what his client had hoped for, though it granted all requested rulings regarding the children.
