Name Change on Marriage (or Civil Union) certificate.. Is it Possible?

[justjero]

I married my wife in Connecticut on 1/1/07.   On 1/1/07 I was still legally female, pre-T and pre-op, pre name change/gender change, pre-everything

Comments

[usedtobeme]

your legal gender shouldn't matter once everything gets rolled into marriage--at that point all marriages should be indistinguishable from each other, gender-wise.

[justjero]

Thanks, I agree that in CT that would be the case, but since my sex/name on my certificate are female, if we leave the state that could be a big problem. We aren't a same-sex couple anymore, but the certificate says we are. That concerns me.

[usedtobeme]

Hm. Leaving the state wouldn't matter with any other kind of marriage no matter what your birth certificate says. I mean, it would typically matter only in a crisis situation, if god forbid one of you died and a relative were to challenge your marriage's validity or something. Otherwise a marriage's validity rarely comes up.

However, I suppose in the case of a marriage made in CT it could come up in other situations (healthcare for instance) if CT does not issue you a new certificate or if their certificates actually do differentiate by gender. That's definitely something to ask and get answered right away.

I do think speaking with a lawyer is a good idea, though. I bet if you called Lamda Legal in NY (maybe they have a CT office too) they would help you as much as they could without charging you.

[sneakersjay]

If they won't change it, could you just have a brief civil ceremony and get married again? That way everything would be in your new name/gender. The legal date of your marriage would differ, though. Not sure how that would impact things.

[benjimmy]

I'm wondering if that would mean they'd have to get the first marriage annulled before they got re-married... I mean, I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that in order to be married twice, even to the same person, a divorce or annulment would have to happen in between the two marriages.

Sorry, OP, I've got no advice other than to try and talk to a lawyer about the specifics.

[icarus_after]

except right now he ISN'T married.

[icarus_after]

legally, obv. i am not trying to invalidate your relationship, OP.

[tommytesto]

GLAD has dealt with it and is the call to make - GLAD is new-england-wide.

[eternal_saudade]

my first instinct (knowing next to nothing about the legality of any of it, mind you) would be that you may want to dissolve the first union altogether and then get married again, as an opposite sex couple. it seems like rolling it over might run you into the trouble of whether you can change the information and/or whether it would be considered valid in other places. again, though, no legal knowledge, just my armchair thoughts.