NEW ORLEANS – Transman performer, director, educator and activist Buck Angel is ineligible for spousal support from his estranged wife because he isn’t a legitimate man, according to court documents filed in the couple’s divorce.
Elayne Angel claims Buck Angel, who markets himself as “the man with a pussy,” was legally female when the couple married in New Orleans on Nov. 17, 2003. Under Louisiana law, gender-reassignment is not complete until the genitals have been altered.
Since Louisiana doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages, the Angel marriage is void, Elayne Angel claims in her divorce petition. If they were never legally married, she can’t possibly owe him the $2,000 monthly spousal support payments he seeks in the divorce, she argues.
On the other hand, that Buck and Elayne Angel were allowed to marry in New Orleans suggests someone in authority thought Buck was eligible. Perhaps his markedly male exterior in all but the pubic area convinced the relevant person in charge.
Or perhaps, as the New York Press posited in a 2003 profile of the couple, “just to be clear … despite his unusual pubic area, Buck is legally considered a man” in California, where he lives, so he possessed the requisite documents proving his gender. Same-sex marriage has been legal in California since June 2013.
The case opens a number of questions for the legal system, including whether states must recognize other states’ gender determination in matters of marriage and divorce.
