Transsexual to resume fight for right to marry
On Valentine’s Day Joanne Cassar will kick off another phase in her battle to secure her right to marry a man following her gender reassignment surgery seven years ago.
On the day dedicated to lovers, the 29-year-old will start making her case in anticipation of meeting the man of her dreams.
The submissions will be made in appeal proceedings initiated by the Attorney General and the Marriage Registrar, who asked the Constitutional Court to revoke Ms Cassar’s right to marry after a judge ruled in November that her gender reassignment surgery should not prejudice her right to have a husband.
The first sitting of the appeal was meant to take place yesterday but Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri abstained from hearing the case because when he still occupied the post of Attorney General he was involved in preparing the position of the Director of Public Registry. The other two presiding judges are Mr Justice Geoffrey Valenzia and Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo.
The case was put off to February 14.
Ms Cassar’s legal battle dates back to September 2006 when she and her then partner applied for the banns but the Marriage Registrar refused to issue them even though Ms Cassar had legally changed her gender to female on her birth certificate after the surgery.
Last November, Mr Justice Ray Pace ruled the registrar could not have refused to issue the banns for Ms Cassar’s marriage to a man once she was now recognised as a woman.
The law as applied by the registrar, he added, did not recognise the acquired gender of a transsexual for all legal purposes including marriage. This was in breach of Ms Cassar’s fundamental human right to respect for family life and her right to marry.
Ms Cassar is no longer with her partner but is determined to carry on fighting for her right to marry.
Lawyers David Camilleri and José Herrera are representing Ms Cassar.
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Paul Vella
Jan 11th 2011, 17:27
Together with many others, Joanne, you're in my thoughts. It's sad that you are battling alone when there are so many others who will gain by your victory. It is high time in this country to put a stop to the interference of the church and the state into our lives. Our lives is our own and no one is entitled to force us into believing anything or do anything. It is a shame that things are still what they are in this country. Church, State and fundamentalists: leave us alone! We decide what our lives should be all about. We do not care about what you insist is right. We have our own definition of what is right and we are hell bent to live according to that definition and according to no other!
Good Luck Joanne.
Raymond Sammut
Jan 11th 2011, 16:25
In my view, it is important that Joanne Cassar can find and obtain justice in the courts. If she is going to be discriminated against by the State, then potentially so could many others. The event of one getting singled out by the State, and be discriminated against, is an event that should be of grave concern to everyone. I hope that Ms Cassar will get support not only from family and friends, but also from a large body of citizens. This support is unequivocally justified by current developments in medical research. That is, on the basis of what has been reported publicly on this case, Joanne Cassar --thanks to modern advances in medicine and in medical technology-- is a perfectly healthy woman. She is fully entitled to be recognized as such by the State; recognized in no way different from any other woman in the community.
Sabrina Borda
Jan 11th 2011, 15:37
Those who really and truly disrupt the balance of life are those who keep dictating what people ought to do and how they ought to be. These same people exploit others to form their personal ideals only because they are devoid of true wisdom. They do not see individuals intrinsic needs, they only see their own, believing in what they do not know, this unknown territory for them is what causes disruption. These people must stop meddling in others private lives now.
Miss Joanne Cassar, I support you in that you should have the option to do as you please. Common sense will back you all the way.
Vincent Borg
Jan 11th 2011, 13:52
Joanna, fight for your and others right, I support your cause.
Where is the Liberty we preach, tollerance, equality, love and respect
to each other. So please stop being dictators and imagine that you are in
the same situation, do you still oppose. We live in an open minded
European Malta, and not in the dark ages, like some high people.
Who are we to judge Sirs
Ramon Casha
Jan 11th 2011, 13:13
Joanne is an inspiration to many. Good luck!
Dr. John Zammit
Jan 11th 2011, 11:54
The Malta Liberals - www.malta-liberals.org - support Joanne in her fight for the right to marry.
We will be contesting the coming general elections and if we get elected we will bring to Malta the most progressive European laws to our country.
Vincent Scerri
Jan 11th 2011, 11:33
Why? Isn't she God's own creation?
P Vella
Jan 11th 2011, 11:07
Are we in Europe or in Iran? It seems that the powers that be are just determined to make life difficult for Ms Cassar. What a waste of taxpayers' money.
Joseph Vella
Jan 11th 2011, 12:16
Funnily enough, despite the homophobic law in Iran, Gender reassignment is totally supported by the state...they make a big difference between homosexuality and transexuality - as should be the case. People tend to mix these two together
P Vella
Jan 11th 2011, 16:02
@ Joseph vella
The more reason then to cry 'shame and shame again' . When will these meddling Big Brothers who pry everywhere and into everything personal get a life and stop wasting the resources of our courts?
isabelle luca borg
Jan 11th 2011, 11:03
Go Joanne!!! May you win this battle and show all and sundry that it's the heart that matters and not the gender!!!
I am waiting for the holier than thou comments stating that she was a man and therefore cannot marry another man.
With this type of reasoning, she cannot marry a man as she was once a man, and she cannot marry a woman because she is now a woman.
What sort of justice and reasoning is that?!
You're in my thoughts, Joanne, and of many others who are not so narrow minded as the saints we have in Malta.
Marianna Galea Xuereb
Jan 11th 2011, 10:56
Joanne Cassar should be fighting for Civil unions to be introduced in the Maltese Islands and so should everybody else - whether homo, hetero, bisexual or hermaphrodite. Leave the traditional European definition of marriage well alone but protect the reasonable needs of gay and lisbian couples.