Texas Court Affirms Sex Is Given at Birth; Denies Benefits to Transgendered Widow
A Texas court recently nullified the marriage of a transgendered woman and thus denied her $600,000 in death benefits in the bizarre case surrounding a deceased firefighter who was allegedly tricked into marrying a man before his death.
The District Court of Wharton County last week upheld the 2010 ruling stating that deceased firefighter Capt. Thomas Araguz "was not married on July 4, 2010, the date of his death." The summary judgment continues, "It is further declared that any purported marriage between the decedent and Nikki Araguz prior to decedent's death was void as a matter of law."
The decision was made based on the fact that Nikki Araguz was born Justin Purdue, and the state of Texas does not allow same-sex couples to lawfully wed.
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Purdue began taking hormones at age 18 and eventually legally changed names to Nikki Purdue. A marriage license obtained by the court shows that the transgendered woman then married the divorced Thomas Araguz in 2008 and became Nikki Araguz.
Nikki Araguz defended the union last year saying, "My husband and I loved each other very much ... When all of the evidence is presented, the whole world will know that I am Mrs. Capt. Thomas Araguz III, and I'm now a widow."
The firefighter's mother, Simone Araguz, and her lawyer Chad Ellis assert that Nikki Araguz is really a fraud. Ellis alleges that Nikki never told Thomas about the hormones or a gender change surgery obtained weeks after they purchased the marriage license.
When Thomas Araguz found out about Nikki's true gender, his mother said he separated from Nikki. However, the firefighter was killed two months later while responding to a fire at the 25,000-square foot Maxim Egg Farm. The intense blaze took more than 150 firefighters from 31 nearby fire companies to control the flames. Two firefighters were also hurt by the blaze.
Mother and estate executor Simone Araguz immediately sued following her son's death to prevent Nikki Araguz from receiving any of the $600,000 collected by the Houston Fire Department.
"Nikki Araguz is someone who has conned people her entire life," described Ellis. "We are getting daily reports that Tommy Araguz was not the first person who this has happened to. She has deceived other men into thinking that she was born a woman."
Further tainting the transgendered woman’s image is an alleged deal to star in a proposed reality television show entitled "Being Nikki."
With the marriage now void, all of Thomas Araguz's benefits will be given to his two sons, Trevor and Tyler, 10 and 7, by ex-wife Heather Delgado.
Delgado's attorney, Frank E. Mann, III told the Houston Chronicle they are also considering an injunction against the proposed show in order to protect the children.
Ellis praised the ruling saying, "In answering the question, 'can a physician change the gender of a person with a scalpel, drugs and counseling, or is a person's gender immutably fixed by our Creator at birth?' The appeals court determined that gender is fixed, saying, 'There are some things we cannot will into being. They just are.'"
According to the Houston Chronicle, the state law legally defines gender by considering three factors – a person's gonads, genitalia and chromosomes – at birth.
