In a case similiar to Littleton v. Prange,
In re Estate of Gardiner, J'Noel Gardiner completed SRS in the mid-90s.
Her home state of Wisconsin issued her a new birth certificate documenting
her sex as female. In 1998, she married Marshall Gardiner in Kansas.
He died one year later of a heart attack. When his son found out
that J'Noel Gardiner had undergone sex reassignment surgery and
had actually been born male, he challenged the validity of their
marriage in hopes of keeping her from any of Marshall's $2.5 million
estate. In March of 2002, the state Supreme Court declared that
marriage between a man and a trans woman was not valid in Kansas
and that JČNoel can only marry a woman. Kansas law does not address
transsexual marriages, only same-sex marriages, as being invalid.
Therefore, since J'Noel's birth certificate says she is in fact
a woman, the state is going against state and federal law by invalidating
her heterosexual marriage, while at the same time approving a same-sex
marriage, one which would probably never be granted.
Associated Press, "Kansas High Court Declares Transsexual's
Marriage Was Invalid, Overturns Ruling: [Five Star Lift Edition]."
St. Louis Post – Dispatch. St. Louis, MO, 16 March 2002,
5.
