Va. Couple Nearly Sidesteps State Ban on Gay Marriage

"Just the awkwardness of the name -- that deputy clerk that waited on them suspected something was amiss, or, actually, a mister," Chief Deputy Clerk Gary Anderson said.

Days later, when McCain called to check on the progress of the name-change request, Anderson said, Circuit Court Clerk Rex Davis asked McCain flat-out: "Are you male or female?"

"He said male," said Anderson, who later added in an e-mail that "[McCain] told Rex that a friend told them that it was OK for 2 males to be married in Virginia so they thought it was OK."

The clerk's office also confirmed with statistics officials in North Carolina, McCain's home state, the he was born male, Anderson said, and on June 2 a judge deemed the marriage "void ab initio," or invalid from the start, expunging it from the public record.

In his order, Newport News Circuit Court Judge C. Peter Tench wrote, "It has now been determined that Antonio Elroy Blount and Justin Lewesley McCain are of the same sex, and therefore prohibited from entering into a marriage" by the Virginia code and the state constitution. Tench also ordered the pair to return any certified copies of their marriage license to the court clerk.

Gwynn said there is no applicable penalty for the marriage itself, despite Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage. The nuptial is simply void.

Anderson said marriage license applications in Newport News have been changed to read "male applicant" and "female applicant," instead of "bride" and "groom."

It's unclear whether McCain and Blount were trying to make a political statement or put one over on officials, or whether McCain is transgender. Neither could be reached for comment. A cellphone number listed in McCain's name is not active, and a relative did not know how to get in touch with him or where he was living. No phone number could be found for an address listed for Blount.

Newport News officials apparently were not the first to mistake McCain for a woman. A traffic conviction record this year from Norfolk General District Court, in which McCain was found guilty of an improper lane change, reads "female" in the sex field.

Staff researcher Meg Smith and staff writer Chris L. Jenkins contributed to this report.