Dead Firefighter’s Family Sues His Widow Because She is Trans.

Warning: quoted text and linked articles contain transphobic language.

This story is enraging and heartbreaking all at once. A woman named Nikki Araguz recently lost her husband Thomas, when he died while working as a firefighter on July 3. Instead of being allowed to mourn this horrific and sudden loss of her life partner, Nikki is instead being sued by her late husband’s family.

The lawsuit attempts to void the two year marriage of Nikki and Thomas, for the purpose of preventing her from having access to his death benefits. The family brutally alleges that the entire marriage was a fraud, revealed personal details about Nikki’s life, and have dragged her into court and before television cameras during this grieving period.

All because Nikki is transgender.

A Wharton county judge is expected to hear evidence on Friday in the first step toward sorting out the estate of a firefighter killed in the line of duty, in dispute because of a lawsuit between his parents and his widow who was born a male.

Nikki Araguz on Thursday decried allegations lodged in the lawsuit by her late husband’s family that she is a fraud because she was born male.

“I’m absolutely devastated about the loss of my husband, a fallen firefighter named Thomas Araguz III, and horrified at the horrendous allegations accusing me of fraud because they are absolutely not true,” Araguz said at a Thursday press conference. “And that is all I have to say.”

She spoke briefly at the law office of Phyllis Frye, a transgender attorney, who said her six-lawyer firm is poised to fight the family’s lawsuit. Moments after her statement, Araguz stood up in tears and walked out of the press conference.

“She cries,” Frye said after the abrupt departure. “It’s been 18 days since her husband died.”

The Associated Press outlines:

In a lawsuit filed July 12 in Wharton County, his mother, Simona Longoria, asked to be appointed administrator of her son’s estate and that her son’s marriage to Nikki Araguz be voided because the couple were members of the same sex.

…

Voiding the marriage would prevent Araguz from receiving any insurance or death benefits or property the couple had, with these things only going to her husband’s heirs, said Chad Ellis, Longoria’s attorney.

A Friday court hearing is planned to determine whether to extend a temporary restraining order granted Longoria that prevents Araguz from receiving insurance or death benefits or having access to bank accounts or property the couple had.

Ellis said his client’s efforts to void the marriage are supported by Texas law, specifically a 1999 appeals court ruling that stated chromosomes, not genitals, determine gender.

The ruling upheld a lower court’s decision that threw out a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a San Antonio woman, Christie Lee Cavazos Littleton, after her husband’s death. The court said that although Littleton had undergone a sex-change operation, she was actually a man, based on her original birth certificate, and therefore her marriage, as well as her wrongful death claim, was invalid.

“The law is clear, you are what you are born as,” Ellis said.

It's everything what is wrong with law.

No one should be living what this woman is living right now. Reality is that most trans women do.

Bueno, gente. *suspiro* Si tienen facebook por favor vean esto:

( Cut porque es largo. Sí, violencia hacia las parejas homosexuales. nada nuevo )

Lo bonito es que rápido en nombre de la Iglesia Católica la gente se pone a pisotear los derechos ajenos. Lo preocupante es que puede terminar en violencia hacia la pareja (puede si llega llevarse a cabo esta "convocatoria", que es un llamado a la violencia, de por sí). Sabemos que "la masculinidad" es apreciada por sobre todas las cosas, y como una pareja de hombres puede ser agredida, no hace falta que los atacantes sean extremistas religiosos. Estos mensajes son muy peligrosos.

Puede ser un disparador para quienes han sobrevivido a una violación. Muy fuerte.: Pero claro, Iglesia Católica, llena eres de gracia. Descaro.


* Un video: Secretos Transgénero. Aprovecho porque tiene subtítulos en español, aunque me llama la atención que la mayoría (¿o todos?) de los que aparecen sean hombres trans.