ABCNEWS.com : Florida Transsexual Man Granted Custody: A judge granted child custody to a transsexual man involved in a bitter divorce case and ruled Friday that the man is legally male under Florida law, even though he was born female. Circuit Judge Gerard O'Brien said the ruling, the first of its kind in the state, meant Michael Kantaras could legally adopt his wife's teenage son and be listed as the father of a child she conceived during their marriage.
How very interesting.
Although, you know, I've never quite understood how you could bring up the "Invalid marriage" argument in a case like this. Either you thought the marriage was valid when you married, in which case the argument doesn't apply, or you knew perfectly well that it wasn't, in which case you have committed fraud. (And depending on what you did with your income taxes, potentially some very nasty penalties would be lurking in the mists, too.)
Aside from that, the case is certain to be appealed. I rather suspect it will be overturned by either the Florida court of appeals and/or the Florida Supreme Court. (Assuming that either party has the funds to continue on with appeals; since there's no money directly involved, this is the sort of thing that gets hideously expensive very quickly.) I somehow just can't see this decision surviving in the Florida courts. If, by some miracle, it does survive, I would expec the Florida legislature to move to limit it.
Posted by iain at February 25, 2003 05:03 PMComments
