JSOnline.com – By Derrick Nunnally
Transgendered past calls wedding’s legality into question
If Barbara Lynn Terry wants to get married Friday morning, she’ll have to swear to a judge she’s a man. And so will her doctor.
Otherwise, Wisconsin’s same-sex marriage prohibition will keep Terry – who was born a man, lived as a woman for decades and has undergone treatment for sexual-reassignment surgery – from marrying Nicole Winstanley, despite the marriage license application the couple completed March 5.
Courthouse records indicate just how complicated their situation is: Terry, 58, who claims to have identified as a woman since childhood, was convicted of raping a woman in 1970; was denied a request to transfer to a woman’s prison while serving the sentence; and legally petitioned for a name change from Ronald Francis Terry in 1980. And Winstanley, 22, claims Australian residency and had lived in Milwaukee County less than 30 days before signing the application.