Hey - another little tid bit of information for everyone. Since we discussed the binary categories of sexuality and gender in class in such depth, I thought it might be interesting for some of our feminist scientists to see how these categories are clashing with the political system. As we all know, same-sex marriages are illegal in the States everywhere except Massachusetts. However in Sunday's New York Times, there's an article entitled "Through Sickness, Health, and Sex Change" which describes how a couple, one half of which is transgendered, is challenging New Jersey marriage laws. Since I'm writing my final paper on Thomas Beatie, the transgendered pregnant man from Oregon, my ear has been finely tuned to these stories. I think the firmly established two-gender system that dominant society chooses to uphold is causing a lot of confusion where legal regulation of rights for couples are concerned.
Just an example from the article: "The New Jersey reference stems from a 1976 case in which an appellate court ruled that a man needed to pay support to his ex-wife, who was born male, essentially saying that sex is determined by current status, not DNA. But a 2004 Florida case took the opposite tack: a female-to-male transsexual who married a woman and then divorced lost custody of the children, as the marriage was declared invalid since both were born the same sex."
In any case, if anyone wants to check this out:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/fashion/27trans.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin
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