Malta —
The Director of the Public Registry, in his capacity as
Registrar of Marriages, has filed an application
requesting the reversal of a court decree permitting
marriage banns to be issued in favour of a
transsexual.
Earlier this month, Mr
Justice Gino Camilleri, in the Second Hall of the Civil
Court, ordered the director of Public Registry to issue
the marriage banns for a transsexual who was born a man
but was legally declared a woman after
surgery.
The Court issued the
order after noting that the union between the
transsexual, now a woman, and her male partner did not
contravene any provision of the Marriage Act.
But in his application,
the director, Anthony Geraldi, argued that the change in
the Act of Birth of the transsexual, allowing him to
change his name and gender, was only intended to protect
the right to privacy and to avoid
embarrassment.
Such a change, he said,
should not mean that the person is considered a female
for the purpose of marriage.
Mr Geraldi argued that
the surgery was cosmetic and, therefore, the person
involved was essentially still a man.
Marriage banns could not
be issued because same sex marriages were not permitted
here and also because the particulars of the male partner
had not been given.
The names of the couple
are not being published because of the private nature of
the case. Lawyer Peter Gatt signed the
application.
Home Affairs Minister
Tonio Borg yesterday told Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi,
in reply to a parliamentary question, that there was no
doubt that the Marriage Act was clear that a marriage
could take place between a man and a woman.
