“Pregnant Man” Thomas Beatie is fighting back after an Arizona judge refused to grant him a divorce from his wife, Nancy, even though the marriage is recognized as valid in Hawaii.
The Maricopa County Family Court judge said last week that the state’s gay marriage ban prevents the union from being recognized.
“This obviously is not Beatie versus Beatie,” Beatie said Tuesday with girlfriend Amber Nicholas by his side. “This is the state of Arizona versus transgender people, human reproductive rights and fairness under law.”
Beatie, born a woman, was living as a man when he married Nancy in Honolulu in 2003 (Hawaii allows same-sex marriage), but the couple later moved to more-conservative Arizona. Nancy was unable to have children, but Thomas Beatie retained his female reproductive organs while undergoing the gender change, giving birth to three children conceived with donated sperm. He became known as the “Pregnant Man” when he first became pregnant in 2008.
He has ruled out moving back to Hawaii to get the divorce, calling the idea impractical. Beatie could remarry in Arizona, but that would create turmoil in Hawaii, where Beatie’s first marriage was viewed as valid, his lawyer Michael Cantor said.
He will decide later this week whether to appeal to the Arizona State Court of Appeals or the State Supreme Court, ABCNews.com reported.
“Imagine what this is doing to my children,” Beatie said. “In time, they are going to look back and see that a court said that’s not your daddy. I’m sorry, that’s who I am. I am my children’s father.”
In his ruling, Family Court Judge Douglas Gerlach said that there is not enough proof that Beatie was legally a man when he married his wife, even saying that he had stopped hormone treatments in an attempt to get pregnant.
“Parties have failed to show that the word ‘man’ in the state constitution means anything different from its plain, ordinary meaning, which by any generally accepted definition or reputable dictionary excludes people capable of giving birth,” the judge wrote.
Nancy Beatie likely will appeal the decision as well, since it also prevents her from moving forward with her life.
“Obviously, she is very disappointed the judge did not find the marriage to be valid,” her lawyer David Higgins told ABCNews.com. “She understood herself to be married, believed Thomas to be a man, and we will probably join Thomas in moving forward with an appeal in that regard.”
With News Wire Services
