Court refuses 'pregnant man' Thomas Beatie's divorce

[Jazzy]

An Arizona judge has refused to grant a divorce to a transgender man who gave birth to three children.



The judge said there was insufficient evidence that Thomas Beatie was male when he married; the state bans same-sex marriage.



In 2008, Mr Beatie, who had lived as a man for decades, gave birth to a girl, the first of three pregnancies.



He is legally male but kept his female reproductive organs and bore children because his wife was infertile.



A spokesman for Mr Beatie, Ryan Gordon, said Maricopa County Family Court Judge Douglas Gerlach's comments came as a shock. He said his client, who hopes to marry his current girlfriend, planned to appeal the ruling.



It's unfortunate that the judge out here doesn't recognise marriage in another state,'' Mr Gordon said.



'Whole ball of wax'

In his ruling, Judge Gerlach wrote that the couple had failed to prove Mr Beatie was a male when they were married.



The decision here is not based on the conclusion that this case involves a same-sex marriage merely because one of the parties is a transsexual male, he wrote.



Mr Beatie began taking testosterone in 1979 and underwent a double mastectomy in 2002. His birth certificate was changed to male at the same time.



Mr Gordon said Mr Beatie, 39, was legally married as a man and never was required to disclose that he retained female reproductive organs when applying for the birth certificate in Hawaii as a man.



Mr Beatie halted testosterone treatments so he could give birth to his children after the couple found out his wife could not get pregnant.



I'm clearly a man: socially, legally, psychologically, physically - the whole ball of wax, Mr Beatie told the Arizona Republic in December.

Source



Not sure how Mr. Beatie considers himself physically a man when he clearly has female reproductive organs.

Do you think the judge was right in his decision not to grant the divorce? Why or why not?

 

[DrLeftover]

The are only two things Beatie is....



Confused.



-and-



An Attention Whore.

 

[Evil Eye]

How can a judge refuse a divorce by refusing to acknowledge their marriage?

 

[Jazzy]

How can a judge refuse a divorce by refusing to acknowledge their marriage?

The state of Arizona does not recognize same sex marriages. This couple got married in a state that did and then moved to Arizona. If he has female reproductive organs, he's NOT a male.

 

[DrLeftover]

Exactly.



The only people who called Beatie a pregnant man were the 'mainstream media' and talking heads like Oprah.

 

[Evil Eye]

The state of Arizona does not recognize same sex marriages.

Why should that matter when they're already married?

If a state has the power to divorce people married in another state, they obviously recognise marriages performed by other states