## Facts

- Christie Lee Littleton was born in 1952 with male genitalia and was assigned male at birth.
- From early childhood, Christie identified as female and later pursued psychological and medical treatment.
- Christie underwent hormone therapy, legally changed her name, and completed sex-reassignment surgeries between 1979 and 1980.
- After transition, Christie lived as a woman and obtained amended state-issued documents, including an amended birth certificate reflecting female sex.
- In 1989, Christie married Jonathon Mark Littleton in Kentucky; the couple later lived together in San Antonio, Texas.
- After Jonathon’s death in 1996, Christie filed Texas wrongful death and survival claims against Dr. Mark Prange, alleging medical malpractice, and sued as Jonathon’s surviving spouse.
- Dr. Prange challenged Christie’s standing, asserting the marriage was void because Christie was legally male under Texas law.

## Issues

1. Whether a post-operative transgender woman is legally female for purposes of a valid opposite-sex marriage under Texas law as it then existed.
2. Whether the marriage was void as a prohibited same-sex marriage, thereby preventing the plaintiff from qualifying as a “surviving spouse” under Texas wrongful death and survival statutes.

## Decision

- The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for Dr. Prange.
- The court held Christie was legally male for Texas marriage-law purposes because chromosomes do not change with hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery.
- The court concluded that a marriage between Christie (legally male) and Jonathon (male) was a prohibited same-sex marriage under Texas law at the time and therefore void.
- Because the marriage was void, Christie was not a “surviving spouse” and lacked standing to recover wrongful death damages as Jonathon’s widow.

## Legal Principles

- For Texas marriage-law purposes (absent legislative authorization to the contrary), legal sex is determined by biological and chromosomal characteristics at birth and is not altered by sex-reassignment surgery or hormonal treatment.
- A marriage that Texas law treats as a same-sex marriage (under the court’s birth-assigned-sex approach) is void under the statutory scheme in effect at the time.
- Standing to sue as a wrongful-death beneficiary based on spousal status requires a valid marriage; a void marriage defeats surviving-spouse status.
- Amended identity documents and an amended birth certificate were not treated as controlling for determining legal sex for marriage validity.

## Conclusion

The court held that, for purposes of Texas marriage validity and wrongful-death beneficiary status at the time, sex was fixed at birth by chromosomal biology; accordingly, Christie’s marriage to Jonathon was void as a same-sex marriage under then-existing law, and she could not sue as his surviving spouse.


Littleton v. Prange, 9 S.W.3d 223 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 1999)