WARREN Judge rejects motion filed by transsexual

Judge Swift denied the marriage license application last month.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A Trumbull County probate judge will not reconsider his decision to deny a marriage license to a transsexual man and the woman he wants to marry.
A day after the attorney representing Jacob B. Nash and Erin A. Barr of Howland filed a motion for reconsideration, the judge released a two-page ruling denying the request. A stamp on the ruling, however, indicates the order was issued Monday, the same day the couple's attorney filed a 28-page brief with the court.
Prior ruling
Last month, Judge Swift denied the couple's motion for a marriage license because Nash failed to disclose on the original application of marriage that he had been previously married.
The couple stated during a Sept. 5 hearing they forgot to mention Nash's previous marriage under the name of Pamela Ann Nash. Nash's first marriage ended in divorce May 6, 1998, court records state.
The judge's ruling also says the couple did not follow procedure in letting the court know they wanted to file an amended application.
"The applicants' explanation at the evidentiary hearing that the applicants forgot Jacob B. Nash's previous marriage and divorce was not convincing and lacked credibility," the ruling states.
Amended application
Atty. Deborah A. Smith's brief states that at the beginning of the Sept. 5 hearing, she asked the court for permission to file an application for a marriage license and the judge granted the motion. The amended application states Nash was previously married.
The brief also says a license should be granted because Nash has an amended birth certificate from Massachusetts that states Nash is a male.
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 argued state law says that to get a marriage certificate, one person must show proof of being male and the other must show proof of being female. Barr testified during the four-hour hearing that her West Virginia-issued birth certificate does not state her gender.
Barr and Nash filed an application for marriage Aug. 2 in Trumbull County Probate Court.