Texas Transgender Widow Appeals Benefits Decision

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

Read Full Bio

Trudy Ring

November 15 2011 7:36 PM EST

November 17 2015 5:28 AM EST

trudestress

We need your help
Your support makes The Advocate's original LGBTQ+ reporting possible. Become a member today to help us continue this work.

Nikki Araguz, the transgender widow of a Texas firefighter, is appealing a judge's decision that found their marriage invalid and denied her his death benefits.

Araguz was in court Monday in Wharton to appeal Judge Randy Clapp's May decision that her marriage to Wharton County fire captain Thomas Araguz was not valid because Nikki was born biologically male, Houston TV station KHOU reports. Nikki, who had long identified as female and lived as a woman for some time before their marriage, underwent gender-reassignment surgery afterward, and she says their union was legal. He died last year while fighting a fire.

Thomas Araguz's family says his death benefits -- $600,000 -- should go to the two children he had with his previous wife, instead of a share going to Nikki. The appeals process in the case could go on for another year, attorneys said.

The case stands to have wide-ranging implications for gender-variant individuals. For a profile of Nikki Araguz by The Advocate's sister publication Out, click here.