Kansas Supreme Court Says Transsexual's Marriage is Invalid
By John Hanna, Associated Press
Originally published by The Associated Press, March 16, 2002
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A marriage between a man and a transsexual woman is not valid in Kansas, the state Supreme Court declared Friday in a case that has been closely watched by advocates for transsexuals.
The ruling came in the case of J'Noel Gardiner, whose right to inherit half of her late husband's $2.5 million estate had been challenged because she was born a man.
The sex change operations took place years before her 1998 marriage to Marshall Gardiner. He died a year later, and his son challenged the validity of their marriage after discovering J'Noel Gardiner's sex change.
Kansas law declares same-sex marriages invalid, but it does not address marriages involving transsexuals.
Transsexual advocacy groups had praised the Kansas Court of Appeals decision in May that said the woman's sex at the time of marriage was the crucial issue.
But the Supreme Court overturned that ruling, declaring in a unanimous opinion that under Kansas law, J'Noel Gardiner is not a woman and therefore cannot marry a man.
"The Legislature has declared that the public policy of this state is to recognize only the traditional marriage between 'two parties who are of the opposite sex,' and all other marriages are against public policy and void," Justice Donald Allegrucci wrote for the court. "We cannot ignore what the Legislature has declared to be the policy of this state."
The ruling was in line with an earlier ruling in Texas that the U.S. Supreme Court let stand in 2000 by declining to hear the case.
In the Texas case, that state's Court of Appeals reviewed the case of a transsexual who wanted to sue for the wrongful death of her husband. The Texas court declared her female anatomy "man-made," and said it was up to the Legislature to legalize marriages involving transsexuals.
J'Noel Gardiner, who teaches finance at Park University, just north of Kansas City, Mo., was 40 when she married Marshall Gardiner, an 85-year-old university donor. Gardiner died the following year of a heart attack.
Attorney Sanford Krigel had warned the court that concluding J'Noel Gardiner's marriage invalid would leave her the right to marry only women.
"You're creating a situation where you would essentially be approving what would appear to be a homosexual marriage," Krigel said.
The court didn't address that possibility in its ruling.
