Joey Hateley, 35 and British, and Hugo Vera, 29 (pictured L-R), will reportedly be Ecuador’s first gay couple to legally wed — thanks to a technicality. That’s because Hately was female at birth but transitioned to male. But because Ecuador still recognizes him as a woman, it’s a heterosexual marriage by law (and thus recognized), but a homosexual marriage to anyone who understands how these things work. They’re set to marry tomorrow in Quito.
Saywhatnow?
How lovely. Congratulations!!
Daez
Transgendered people have been able to legally marry in many states in this country for a great deal of time. I don’t think you can even remotely consider it to be gay marriage.
andrew
Daez, they are both technically male.
Dino
@Daez: They’re both men. Two men getting married is gay marriage.
Or to put it another way: the marital union of two people of the same sex is what is called “gay marriage.” Joey and Hugo are both men, making them of the same sex. Therefore, their marriage is a gay one.
To put it yet another way: you are stupid.
TommyOC
@Dino, Queerty: I thought the gender of the two partners marrying no longer mattered? I thought that two consensual adults loving each other was all that really mattered. Isn’t that what we gays have been fighting for?
If so, then it shouldn’t matter to us at all if they’re both men, both women, or if some sort of gray ground exists because one’s transitioned into another gender.
What should matter is that these two people got to do what most of us are still longer for – the chance to marry the person of our choice.
And good for them for exploiting a loophole to get it done.
missanthrope
Tommy, saying it’s not a “gay” marriage is basically de-gendering Hately. I think that was what Dino was getting at. I know you think it’s a frivolous detail, but it’s important to trans because some of us have to deal with de-gendering everyday.