Texas court revives transgender marriage case

Julie Rigsby (from left), Ross Tepley, Autumn Hendrick, keynote speaker Nikki Araguz, Erica Lindsey and Delaine Feutch during PrideFest at HemisFair Park on June 9, 2012. Julie Rigsby (from left), Ross Tepley, Autumn Hendrick, keynote speaker Nikki Araguz, Erica Lindsey and Delaine Feutch during PrideFest at HemisFair Park on June 9, 2012. Photo: Marvin Pfeiffer/ Express-News Photo: Marvin Pfeiffer/ Express-News Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close Texas court revives transgender marriage case 1 / 29 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO — A transgender woman who was denied benefits after her firefighter husband died in the line of duty will get another chance to litigate the case in a state district courtroom, the 13th Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.

Nikki Araguz was denied benefits when the mother and ex-wife of late husband Thomas Trevino Araguz III filed a lawsuit claiming the marriage was void because of Texas' ban on same-sex marriage.

Nikki Araguz identified as a woman when they married but was born a male named Justin Graham Purdue.

Thomas Araguz died in a July 2010 blaze at an egg farm in Wharton, a town of about 9,000 west of Houston. The lawsuit, filed weeks after his death, was over his $600,000 estate.

Nikki Araguz has been on feminizing hormone therapy since age 18 and in 1996 successfully petitioned the 245th state District Court of Harris County to have her name changed, court documents state. Later that year, she changed her birth certificate in California to change her gender to female.

She married Thomas Araguz in August 2008, after presenting a Texas driver's license to the Wharton County Clerk's Office stating she was female. At the time of the wedding, she still had male sex organs, but she underwent genital reassignment surgery two months later, court documents state.

Thomas Araguz's parents have told the media their son was “conned” — an allegation that Nikki Araguz has adamantly denied.

“I had been completely honest with him about my entire history: legally, financially, physically, mentally and medically,” she told the Houston Chronicle outside a courtroom in July 2010, weeks after Thomas Araguz's death. “My husband and I loved each other very much.”

As first reported Thursday in the San Antonio Express-News, the appellate court, based in Corpus Christi and Edinburg, voided the state district court judge's summary judgment in favor or Thomas Araguz's parents and ordered the case returned to the original courtroom for further litigation.

“... We conclude that the trial court erred in granting the summary judgment because there is a genuine issue of material fact regarding Nikki's sex and whether the marriage was a same sex marriage,” Chief Justice Rogelio Valdez wrote in the 26-page ruling for the case.

The justices noted in the opinion recent moves by other states to allow same-sex marriage and the 2013 Supreme Court decision that struck down a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act that prevented the federal government from recognizing such unions.

“To date, these developments have not affected the law banning same sex marriages in Texas,” Valdez wrote. “The dispute in this case is whether Thomas and Nikki had a same sex marriage in contravention of Texas law. The resolution of the dispute will require a determination of Nikki's sex, an issue on which the parties strongly disagree.”

For the complete story, including comments on the ruling from Nikki Araguz, visit www.ExpressNews.com.