Can a Hermaphrodite Get Married in California?
I had the strangest thought on the way home this evening: can a hermaphrodite get married in California? Stick with me, this logical walk actually makes some sense…
Let me preface this with the fact that I’m not familiar with the exact verbiage of Proposition 8 so I’m going to discuss some different versions for this exercise. I’m also aware that the proper term is ‘intersexed’, but for this exercise the dualistic imagery of a true hermaphrodite is helpful, so I’m going to use that term.
Let’s say Proposition 8 gets technical in its definition and says no one with a penis can marry anyone with a penis, and no one with a vagina can marry anyone with a vagina (which I know is unlikely, but bear with me). In this case, a hermaphrodite can’t marry anyone: they have all the parts and are explicitly kept from marrying. So, assuming someone is makes the argument Proposition 8 doesn’t infringe on anyone’s rights because a a gay man has just as much right to marry a woman as a straight man, we can refute that argument because given this definition a hermaphrodite can’t get married.
Now, let’s go with the more likely scenario where the verbiage is something more like “a man can only marry a woman and vice versa”. Well, which is a hermaphrodite? If we’re going by genitals they’re a bit of both and are still prohibited from getting married. And if we are going by genitals, who checks? Since that proposition is unwieldly at best, we’ll assume that the male/female roles will be defined by the gender each party claims for him or herself.
And here is where things get interesting. Granted, most hermaphrodites are raised a particular gender, but there’s nothing saying that the correct ‘gender’ was picked for them at birth and it’s entirely possible that they could choose to switch gender identity later in life. So, which role would this person put on the marriage license? The one assigned to them at birth? The one they’ve chosen later in life?
Let’s take it a step further, and consider someone who is a post-op transsexual. Say this person was born a he and is now a she, and wants to get married to a man. Can she? What determines the gender that is placed on the license: the gender on her birth certificate, or her new identity? How does the new identity receive its new gender, other than a name change and possible a one letter change on a driver’s license? What about someone who is pre-op but has already undergone their identity change, which gender would they be?
Here is where I get to the real purpose of this exercise: if marriage is defined as only applicable to a union of a man and a woman, how do they decide if it is in fact a man or a woman? No one is going to do a genital inspection when you apply for your license. I doubt they’re even going to check a birth certificate. Unless every applicant (straight, gay, bi, male, female, intersexed, and transsexual) required to come in with an affidavit from a medical professional about their gender, how is this even enforcable?
