The 18 month-old marriage has been invalidated because Tennessee authorities have stated that both of the individuals are men. The couple was able to marry because one of them had sex reassignment surgery and had legally changed the gender on her birth certificate and driver's license. Now, the state will not acknowledge their marriage because she was not born a woman.
"The marriage is real to me. It wasn't anything planned to be deceptive. I'm not gay, and Jeff ain't either," said Jo T. Rittenberry, the female-identifying half of the couple.
To me, this isn't even a matter of gay marriage as much as transphobia. If someone identifies as female and has had the surgery to have their sexual organs match their gender, shouldn't they have the same rights as an individual who's born female?
– Dewitt
ah, this country has a long way to go…
look at countries like netherlands or norway.
have higher standards of living and better human rights.
america > religion > republicans – still got decades of progress ahead.
good luck guys.
One could clearly split hairs about what form of discrimination this is but I’m not sure what is gained in that approach. I do think trans issues need more highlighting within the queer community, but the problem in this case seems to stem from the issue of allowing two men to marry. Tennessee seems to recognize sex reassignment in other situations.
The issue of transphobia seems most apparent in the fact that the media keeps insisting it was a same-sex marriage, though it is still unapparent whether Jo actually was female or was posing as female. We’ll just have to take her word for it.
when i read this article elsewhere, it was stated that all she actually got was a boob job, and that she still had a penis. judging from her picture, she didn’t look like someone who could afford the whole deal, which is probably why she didn’t get it. so that might be why they invalidated the marriage; because she still has a penis.
haha, if your DNA says your a man, (XY) then i’m sorry, no matter what you cut off or put on, you are always going to be a MAN… suck it up and accept what nature/god gave you.
haha you can’t just decide to cut your cock off and put make on and then POOF your a women, umm no. …
but anyways, if you wanna fuck up your body, and kill yourself in the process – then far be in from me to stop you…
i think you freaks should be allowed to marry and do whatever, it’s none of my business. but please don’t pretend youre anything close to normal haha.
two gay men are way more normal then two gay men where one decides to chop his thing off…
hahahahahahaha
Welcome to the South, original home of bigotry and racism. I’ve lived here all my life, and have fought every day to live the way I deserve to live. But sadly, one star can’t light the entire night sky.
As for people like “too funny,” didn’t your mother ever tell you that if you didn’t have anything nice to say, shut your fucking mouth? Mine did. All people, regardless of any difference, have the same inalienable civil rights of human beings. Those include fixing the mistakes that have been made, whether it be God or nature’s fault. You worry about your own cock.
Wow, it’s really sad how blatantly uneducated you are “too funny”. Define ‘man’ for me. XY chromosomes? So what’s someone who is XXX or XXY? Where do they fall?
There’s no such thing as normal. The fact that you put so much weight on a non-realistic term is just silly considering we, as gay men, are consistently discriminated against for not being ‘normal’.
Sorry, you don’t get to decide if someone’s a male or not. Transexuality exists.
Let’s reframe it. If your DNA says you’re a man, then you belong with a woman. Nothing you do or say will ever change that.
Look up ‘social construction’ before you go off ranting about something you clearly don’t understand again.
You know I have A REAL problem with you “too funny” It’s people like you who get involved in places you don’t belong. It’s people like you who make it twenty times harder for people like me me to date and we don’t need any help to begin with in that arena.
I am so sick and tired of all this transphobic BULLSHIT in the gay community I could spit. trans men and women were the front runners to the stonewall riots… It’s because of a transwoman by the name of Sylvia Rivera that the protest even began.
I have lived as a man in a woman’s body for years and years and years. I felt imprisioned and judged to the extreme. I finally have the courage to come out and have surgey and hormones and complete my transition as far as I could go… Unfortunately money rules the world and I can’t afford 65 grand to get a penis… I’m a gay man always have been and ALWAYS will be. Because I cannot afford to complete everything at this time it gets real tricky and ya know what… I deserve the same amount of RESPECT AND LOVE you do… why should you and others like you tell me I’M NOT A REAL MAN… Only one thing comes to mind FUCK YOU AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON!
Having a penis or not doesn’t decide if a person is a man. Simple as that.
Not to be overly simplistic, or to reverse the issue but if a man has an accident and has ‘it’ lobbed off, is he no longer a man now? Despite identifying as such? Despite what his brain chemistry makes him feel?
Thank you Manhunt for finally covering a trans issue. I think the GLB really needs to pick up the ball and start advocating more for the T part of the queer community. As a gay transman, I get so sick of people who say that I am not a real man, or a variety of other comments like “too funny”‘s. I’m more of a man than many of those guys will ever be, because I worked for it and value it every single day. Transpeople are not freaks, we just got dealt a rough hand by nature when we were born with a brain of one gender and a body of another. For many of us, fixing our bodies is the only way to survive and preserve our sanity. I just want the world to show a bit of understanding and maybe even have the gay community open up a bit to us transguys. I hope this couple appeals Tennessee’s decision, as their marriage was clearly between a man and a woman. The transphobia needs to stop!
People have to understand gender is not defined by what’s between your legs not even by the XX or XY chromosome. Gender is in people’s mind and we are now beginning to understand that it is an continuum, very much like sexuality, rather than the binary standard society has forced upon us and not everyone can conform to being either “men” or “women.”
These people go through tremendous suffering by being classified as mentally ill when they are perfectly capable and sane individuals. However they can’t get rid of the stigma because that would mean losing coverage from either HMOs or the government to get gender reassignment surgery, which many of them describe as life saving.
I find it appalling that gay and lesbian people having a first hand experience with discrimination turn their backs to people which are in a similar situation. Worst of all, in my opinion, is when feminist groups actively reject MtF trans individuals.
Personally, as a gay man, I live in Alberta and I’m doing everything I can right now to help this community get back coverage for GRS, which was taken away just about a month ago.
Also I didn’t realize Tennessee was even more backwards than Iran, where although homosexuality is illegal they recognize GRS as treatment for Gender Identity Disorder (as it appears in the APA’s handbook) and people that have undergone the operation are recognized as members of their new gender.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7259057.stm