TRUMBULL COUNTY Hearing scheduled on marriage issue

The judge said he will decide after a hearing whether to grant a motion for the license.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A Trumbull County Probate judge will hold a hearing so an attorney can explain why a transsexual male should be allowed to marry.
Judge Thomas Swift said he set a hearing at 10 a.m. Sept. 5 to allow Jacob B. Nash and Erin Barr of Dawson Drive S.E. to explain why they should be granted a marriage license.
"Notice will be sent to the parties and then it will be up to the attorney representing the couple to decide how they want to proceed," Judge Swift said. "They can request an oral hearing or they could submit a written brief."
Judge Swift said he will decide whether to grant the motion for the license after the hearing.
Neither the couple nor their attorney, Deborah Smith of Akron, could be reached to comment.
Nash and Barr filed an application for marriage Aug. 2 in Trumbull County Probate Court. The couple paid the $44 fee, but their application is still pending, court records state.
Amended birth certificate
Court officials said Nash is a transsexual and presented an amended Massachusetts birth certificate, which states he is a male, when seeking the application. Court officials did not know what year Nash's birth certificate was amended.
A transsexual is described in Webster's New World Dictionary as "a person who is predisposed to identify with the opposite sex, sometimes so strongly as to undergo surgery and hormone injections to effect a change of sex."
Smith has said she believes the two should be granted a marriage license because state law says that to get a license, one person has to produce a birth certificate showing he is male and the other has to produce a birth certificate showing she is female.
Court officials said they did not know if the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled on the legality of transsexual marriage.
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in March that a transsexual marriage is invalid. That ruling was issued after a transsexual woman asked to receive part of her former husband's estate.
sinkovich@vindy.com