Thomas and Nikki Araguz A lawyer says a Texas judge plans to annul the marriage of a transgender widow, preventing her from getting the death benefits of her firefighter husband who died last year battling a blaze. Lawyer Edward Burwell says state District Judge Randy Clapp announced his plan in a draft ruling. Burwell is representing the mother of killed firefighter Thomas Araguz III, who has filed a lawsuit that Nikki Araguz should receive no benefits because she was born a man and Texas doesn't recognize same-sex marriages. The widow says she's "devastated" by the judge's decision. Noel Freeman, president of the Houston Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Political Caucus said he was disappointed by the news. "Here you have a birth certificate, a legally binding document, which the court has chosen to completely ignore," Freeman told the Houston Chronicle. "The transgender community jumps through a lot of legal hoops - records of sex changes, amended birth certificates - to try to live the same life that everybody else gets to live. This is a very frustrating setback."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 26th May 2011 - 10:16am