Christie Lee Littleton

Christie Lee Littleton (born 29 March 1952) is an American transsexual woman whose 1999 lawsuit Littleton v. Prange set the precedent that annulled some transsexual marriages in Texas.

Background
Littleton was born in San Antonio, Texas. She dropped out of school at age 15 and began living as a woman. In 1977 she began taking female hormones and legally changed her name to Christie Lee Cavazos. In 1980 she completed her surgical reassignment and had her state-issued identification changed to female. In the 1990s she met and married Jonathan Mark Littleton in Kentucky, later moving to San Antonio, where she worked at a salon and he worked as a window washer. After her husband's death, Littleton brought a medical malpractice suit against her husband's doctor, Mark Prange. The defense attorney argued that the marriage was invalid because Littleton was a trans woman. On appeal, Chief Justice Phil Hardberger relied on the fact that "Texas statutes do not allow same-sex marriages" and that "male chromosomes do not change with either hormonal treatment or sex reassignment surgery" in handing down his judgment that "... Christie Littleton is a male. As a male, Christie cannot be married to another male. Her marriage to Jonathon was invalid, and she cannot bring a cause of action as his surviving spouse."

The case cleared the way for transwomen attracted to women to marry legally in Texas.