A
heterosexual couple forbidden to marry by the
state of Ohio because the groom is transsexual
were legally married in New Hampshire on August
13.
The couple, Jacob Nash and Erin (Barr) Nash
of Warren, have been trying to marry in Ohio
since August 2002.
Their court battle here for a marriage
license has received international notice. Ohio
is one of three states that does not correct
transsexuals’ birth certificates or allow
them to marry someone of the opposite sex.
County and state appeals courts have gone to
sometimes extreme lengths to deny the couple a
marriage license here.
Trumbull County Probate Judge Thomas A. Swift
first denied the couple a license. When they
appealed his ruling, he attempted to join the
case as though his court was being sued itself
instead of appealed. The Eleventh District Court
of Appeals later rejected Swift’s
unprecedented move as inappropriate.
One of Swift’s employees also attempted
to block the couple’s attorney, Randi A.
Barnabee, from being admitted to the Ohio bar by
filing an “unauthorized practice of
law” complaint against her. Barnabee, a
transgender activist and advocate, had recently
moved to Ohio from Maryland, and had passed the
Ohio bar exam at the time.
The complaint was quickly dismissed as
frivolous, but it delayed Barnabee’s Ohio
bar admission and cost her financially.
The Eleventh District court eventually upheld
Swift’s denial of the license. To do so, it
cited an advisory opinion, which higher courts
generally cannot do, plus dissenting U.S.
Supreme Court opinions and Ohio’s
“defense of marriage act” while it was
still a bill awaiting Senate approval. Neither
of the latter two had any force of law, although
the DOMA passed and took effect last spring.
Barnabee said the couple can now challenge
DOMA and other anti-LGBT laws if Ohio tries to
deny full faith and credit to the New Hampshire
marriage license, which she has promised to
defend.
The Nashes were married by Justice of the
Peace Linda Columbine in the town of Holderness,
surrounded by members of Jacob’s family and
friends.
The ceremony took place five years to the day
after Erin Nash boarded a plane to New Hampshire
and brought her future husband back to Ohio in a
rented truck.
According to the couple, when presented with
all of the necessary documents, including
Jacob’s Trumbull County name change,
corrected Massachusetts birth certificate and
previous divorce as a woman, New Hampshire
officials made calls to verify the documents and
told them to pick up their marriage license the
next day.
The couple was asked in 2002 following the
initial marriage license rejection why they
didn’t just go to another state that would
allow it instead of fighting.
“We live in Ohio,” said Erin Nash.
“It’s our home, and we shouldn’t
have to.”
The couple continues to reside in Ohio.
