Mayor Parker reacts to Obama's support to same sex marriage

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- President Obama stepped into the middle of the culture war yesterday by declaring his support for gay marriage. The historic endorsement has a major impact in Houston, the largest city in the country to be run by an openly gay mayor.

The mayor tweeted yesterday afternoon, 'Wow got a call from the White House. The president has stepped up and stated his support for recognizing relationships like mine!'

President Barack Obama stated what he called his 'evolving stance' on gay marriage in an exclusive interview with ABC News.

The president says his family helped him change his mind, talking with his young daughters. He said it didn't occur to them that some of their friends' parents would be treated differently. We talked to those politically active in the Houston area about what this might mean for the 2012 election.

"This is just another distraction so folks wont focus on 8.1 percent unemployment, gas prices that are close to $4 a gallon, growth that is at two percent and an economy that is just dead on arrival," said Jared Woodfill with the Harris County Republicans.

"It doesn't become an issue. Now he can move on, to going back to the economy, to foreign policy, to national defense, all these more pressing issues that are affecting our nation," said Noel Freeman with the Houston Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Caucus.

The president also stated that although he now supports gay marriage, that decision should be left to individual states. Thirty-one states have said no to same sex marriage.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
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Judge voids transgender widow's marriage

  WHARTON, TX -- A Texas judge has signed an order that voids the marriage of a transgender widow.

The order prevents Nikki Araguz from receiving the death benefits of her firefighter husband who died last year battling a blaze. State District Judge Randy Clapp's ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by the family of firefighter Thomas Araguz III. The suit claims his widow should collect nothing because she was born a man and Texas doesn't recognize same-sex marriages. In his ruling signed last week and made public Tuesday, the Wharton County judge said the marriage was "void as a matter of law." Clapp's decision was first made known early last week after attorneys in the case saw a draft of the decision. The widow has previously said she would appeal such a ruling. (Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

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Judge: Transgendered widow's marriage not valid

WHARTON, TX (KTRK) -- There are new developments in the case of Nikki Araguz, the wife of a firefighter who died in the line of fire. Since the death, she's been fighting to prove she's female.

She was fighting to prove she is a woman to lay claim to about $600,000 in death benefits that the fallen firefighter's ex-wife says should go to his two small children. But late Tuesday, a judge ruled their marriage was not valid. A massive fire at an egg farm in 2010 killed a firefighter in the line of duty and set into motion a controversial battle over $600,000 in death benefits. But Tuesday Wharton County Judge Randy Clapp ruled the marriage between transgender Nikki Araguz and firefighter Thomas Araguz was void. Attorneys for Araguz's ex-wife, Heather Delgado, and his two small boys argued that Nikki was born a male, did not undergo reassignment surgery until months after the marriage and, furthermore, only changed the gender on her California birth certificate two weeks after Araguz's death. "So at the time of Thomas' death, the court's ruling would reflect that Thomas and Nikki were of the same gender, male, at the time of his death. That effectively eliminates for an argument of common-law marriage between the two," Delgado's attorney, Ed Burwell, said. Nikki has said all along Araguz was fully aware of her past as a man and that their marriage was valid. Attorney John Nechman, who tries many gay, lesbian and transgender cases, says the ruling is disappointing, but the fact that Nikki's reassignment surgery after the marriage left the judge little choice. "That was just more impetus for the court to utilize case rulings that have already come forth in Texas, to in essence establish and find that Nikki Araguz was male at the time of marriage, though anybody viewing her would be of the belief that she was female," attorney John Nechman said. (Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
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