Judge questions gender of ‘pregnant man’ seeking divorce

Thomas Beatie (aka “pregnant man”) wants to divorce his “wife.”  But the judge suspects that Beatie is a woman because he gave birth to children.  And if he is a woman, then was it a legitimate marriage to begin with?

TMZ reports:

An Arizona judge isn't convinced the Pregnant Man's marriage should be recognized in the Grand Canyon state ... because both man and wife have vaginas ... which might equate to same sex marriage ... which isn't legal in AZ. 

 The dispute is the latest speed bump in Thomas Beatie's divorce proceedings from wife Nancy ... who Thomas married in Hawaii back in 2003. The two represented themselves as a heterosexual couple because Thomas, a transgender man who was born a woman, had a state authorized change of sex before the wedding. Thomas says he has state-sanctioned legal docs to prove it. 

 But an AZ judge is calling the whole system into question ... refusing to preside over the divorce until he is convinced that the two were legitimately married in the first place. 

 In the docs, the judge points to Beatie's womb ... and notes that Thomas gave birth to the couple's three children during the marriage. 

 The judge then argues that he can find NO legal authority that defines a man as someone who has the ability to give birth to a child. 

 Therefore, the judge claims, it's possible Beatie's marriage was NOT LEGAL from the start ... and he has no authority to grant the couple a divorce.
  

The judge gave Beatie an opportunity to defend the marriage ... and Beatie has filed docs doing just that ... pointing to his U.S. passport which designates him as a man as well as his Hawaii birth certificate, which was changed to describe him as a man. 

 The judge has yet to make a final decision.

What defines gender?  Legal documents about a person?  Or that person’s actual body? 

Passports and birth certificates can be incorrect or forged.  Instead, should we look to science and biology to determine sex?  Are we going define gender by wishes or reality?  Is it better to base law on perceptions or actual chromosomes? 

Do people have the right to choose their own gender when it comes to legal and social matters such as marriage and divorce?