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.

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