Friday - May 02, 2008

Former man and wife remarry as two women:

BMEWS regulars may recall my posting of the two sisters story yesterday.  Keep that in mind when ya read this.

By Stephen Adams
Last Updated: 2:12PM BST 02/05/2008

Two women have remarried, more than 30 years after they walked down the aisle together as man and wife.
Emma Martin, who has had a sex change, and Linda Packer tied the knot in a civil ceremony to preserve the tax and pension rights they enjoyed as a married couple.

They got their marriage annulled after Linda’s husband Martin decided to have a sex-change operation. He had felt unhappy with his gender since he was four.

( a four year old can feel gender unhappy? )

The change in Martin’s legal gender status when he became Emma meant they could not remain married under law.

That left the pair, who described themselves as “soulmates”, facing large inheritance tax bills should one of them die.

It also caused problems with life insurance and pensions rights.

Consequently they decided to remarry, despite not being in a sexual relationship.

The couple from Little Downham, near Ely in Cambridgeshire, first married in 1977 and never had children.

Martin Packer told his wife in 1998 that he wanted to change his sex, and he subsequently underwent treatments including electrolysis to remove body hair and hormone replacement therapy, before going under the knife.

Now calling herself Emma Martin, the 60-year-old IT consultant explained: “We are, and always have been, soulmates and best friends ever since 1977 when we got married.

“But, to get my gender recognition certificate, we had to get our marriage annulled.

“When that happened we would have been liable for inheritance tax but it also messed up life insurance and pension rights.

“The simplest thing would have been if we could have had a transfer from a marriage to a civil partnership but that wasn’t possible and it was such a farce to get all the paperwork sorted out.

“From the outside it looks like we are in a relationship and Linda doesn’t really like that because we are not,” she told the Daily Mail.

Under the Gender Recognition Act 2004, marriages in which one spouse has a sex change are not permitted to continue.

As a result Miss Martin faced a choice - either remain legally a man and stay married to Linda, or become a woman, have the union annulled and remarry her.

( BINGO !!!  Can sisters disown each other and then get married?)

The financial security the couple now enjoy under their civil partnership contrasts with the position of elderly sisters Joyce and Sybil Burden, aged 90 and 82, who have lived together all their lives.

Under current legislation the surviving sister will face a £50,000 inheritance tax bill when the other dies, forcing her to sell their Marlborough home.

Earlier this week they lost an appeal at the European Court of Human Rights ruling to be granted the same tax and inheritance rights as married couples and civil partners.

http://tinyurl.com/44p9zk

Posted by Drew458     on 05/02/2008 at 11:57 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • Outrageous •  
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