Araguz’s mother, who is working with his first wife in this matter, wants all of his benefits to go to his sons.
Ellis said he will challenge the validity of the couple’s marriage in probate court as a means to redirect any benefits that may have gone to Nikki Araguz to her husband’s 7- and 10-year-old sons from his previous marriage.
Video at link...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/transgender-widow-lose-husbands-benefits-suit-gender/story?id=11199690
“If you were born a man and have sexual reassignment surgery, you remain legally a man,” Ellis said of the 1999 court ruling. “You have the chromosomes of a male. You don’t have a uterus.”
Ellis, who said Araguz’s mother has asked him to speak on her behalf as they grieve for their son, said Araguz learned of his wife’s transgender status only after she gave a deposition on April 28 as part of a family court matter between Araguz and his first wife regarding their children.
“She said she never told him that she was born Justin Graham Purdue,” he said.
“That’s literally the moment he found out,” Ellis said. “They separated within a week.”
A search of public records under the names Nikki Araguz and Justin Graham Purdue turned up several criminal convictions for offenses includnig driving while intoxicted and issuing bad checks.
According to the lawsuit, Nikki Araguz’s name was legally changed in 1996. The lawsuit also notes that in petitioning the court for the name change, Justin Purdue filed a statement that he was “a woman with male anatomy working toward a sex change.”
A longtime friend of Nikki Araguz, who declined to be identifiied, told ABCNews.com that her status as a transgender woman was known to her friends and family.
“I’ve known since she was 18,” the friend said, calling the lawsuit’s claims that Thomas Araguz only recently found out “not accurate.”
If he hadn't died in the fire, he might have died of embarrassment?
...even though many would have been fooled by his looks along.
We make fun, but it's a very tragic ordeal for the family and kids.