Thomas Beatie was born a woman (biologically). In his mind, however, Beatie felt like a man.
Beatie had his breasts removed and took testosterone hormones, but retained his female reproductive organs. Beatie met his wife, Nancy, who he had three children with. His pregnancy, its controversy, the media’s “infotainment” that followed, and his subsequent book, all grew notorious.
“I don’t think you’re born a man,” Beatie told Barbara Walters in an interview. “I think you become one.”
But now Beatie has found himself in an even more unusual scenario: divorce.
Beatie filed for divorce from his estranged wife and the “mother” of his children, which an Arizona judge denied last week.
Maricopa County Family Court Judge Douglas Gerlach ruled against granting Beatie divorce on the grounds that his marriage that could not be dissolved: Arizona does not recognize same-sex unions. Even though Beatie’s legal marriage documentation states that he was a man at the time of their marriage, the judge has said there was insufficient proof that Beatie was, indeed, a man.
But Beatie has a new love, and is finding it “frustrating to move forward with his life and girlfriend,” ABC News reports.
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He’s appealing the divorce, and will decide Friday whether to take the case to the State Court of Appeals or State Supreme Court.
As for his estranged wife Nancy, she says she’ll join the fight in appealing the ruling.
“The decision is a two edged sword for Nancy,” said her attorney, David Higgins. “Obviously she is very disappointed the judge did not find the marriage to be valid. She understood herself to be married, believed Thomas to be a man, and we will probably join Thomas in moving forward with an appeal in that regard.”
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