Quote:
Originally Posted by Stoked
And you talk about marrying them, why are you waiting?
Because if you want the marriage to be legally recognized it has to be after the girl has 1- had SRS, 2- had all her papers changed. If the couple live in a state where that's not enough (Texas, Ohio, Tenn, etc.) they'd have to move to a more progressive state (NY, NJ, CA, etc.).
A trans girl and a guy could be married whenever they want, even while the girl is pre-op- if they're willing to put up with having a marriage that the government does not recognize. There are even some churches & preachers out there who would be willing to do a service like that. It would be basically like a common law marriage, only both people would have to file taxes separately, they would be unable to put each other under their health insurance, they would not be seen as a couple by customs when traveling abroad, and they could be forced to testify against each other in court.
There's a lot of paperwork involved without state recognition, like each having power of attorney over the other so that they can make medical decisions in case the other is hurt in an accident, living wills, overly technical estate wills, each doing HIPAA disclosure waivers with all their doctors, the girl would have to go through the name change process yet again to take the guy's last name.
Some non-trans straight couples do it this way as well. There are a few religious sects in the US who see it as a sin to use marriage licenses and thus live out their lives without state recognition.
But that's one of those "check local laws first" things, in a couple US states it is a felony to "pretend" to be married when you're not in the eyes of the state (aka no marriage license). A couple states define it as fraud. Why? Because that forces couples to go through the state, which ensures the state gets that marriage license fee (its always all about the money).