Lawrence Roach
agreed to pay alimony to the woman he divorced, not the
man she became after a sex change, his lawyers argued in a
Clearwater, Fla., court Tuesday in an effort to
end the payments. But the ex-wife's attorneys argued
that the operation doesn't alter the agreement.
Less than a week
after commissioners in nearby Largo drew national
attention by firing the city manager after he announced he
was a transsexual, lawyers for Roach and his ex-wife
grappled in another transsexual rights case that
delves into relatively uncharted legal territory. Only
a 2004 Ohio case has addressed whether or not a
transsexual can still collect alimony after a sex change,
those involved say.
''There is not a
lot out there to help us,'' circuit judge Jack R. St.
Arnold said.
Roach and his
wife, Julia, divorced in 2004 after 18 years of marriage.
The 48-year-old utility worker agreed to pay her $1,250 a
month in alimony. Since then, Julia Roach, 55, had a
sex change and legally changed her name to Julio
Roberto Silverwolf.
''It's illegal
for a man to marry a man, and it should likewise be
illegal for a man to pay alimony to a man,'' said John
McGuire, one of Roach's attorneys. ''When she changed
to man, I believe she terminated that alimony.''
Silverwolf did
not appear in court Tuesday and has declined to talk about
the divorce. His lawyer, Gregory Nevins, said the language
of the divorce decree is clear and firm: Roach agreed
to pay alimony until his ex-wife dies or remarries.
''Those two
things haven't happened,'' said Nevins, a senior staff
attorney with the national gay rights group Lambda Legal.
Arnold found
fault with several of Roach's legal arguments and noted that
appeals courts have declined to legally recognize a sex
change in Florida when it comes to marriage. The
appellate court ''is telling us you are what you are
when you are born,'' Arnold said.
An Ohio appeals
court ruled in September 2004 that a Montgomery County
man must continue to pay alimony to his transsexual ex-wife
because her sex change wasn't reason enough to violate
the agreement.
Roach, who has
since remarried, said he has been unable to convince state
and federal lawmakers to tackle the issue. He said he will
continue to fight.
The case is the
second transsexual rights showdown in Pinellas County in
less than a week. On Friday city commissioners voted
5-2 to fire Largo's city manager, Steve
Stanton, after he announced he was a transsexual.
(Phil Davis, AP)
