By Jonathan Mummolo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Without the aid of lawyers, advocates or lawmakers, a Virginia couple almost succeeded in getting around the state's same-sex marriage ban.
Almost.
But instead of enjoying wedded bliss, Justin (pronounced "juh-STEEN") L. McCain, 18, and Antonio E. Blount, 31, had been awaiting a decision on whether they would be charged in Newport News with providing false information when applying for their marriage license.
Yesterday, city Commonwealth's Attorney Howard E. Gwynn announced that he had concluded his investigation and that there would be no charges.
"They swore an oath when they made the application, but 'bride' and 'groom' are not defined in the law of Virginia," said Jack Fitzpatrick, spokesman for Gwynn's office. "Whether they were intending to deceive or not is not something we can get into their minds on." He added that "changes have been made to prevent that problem from happening again."
The near-nuptials began when the couple arrived at Newport News Circuit Court on March 24 to apply for a marriage license. McCain, who court employees said appeared to be a woman, presented a Virginia driver's license and filled out the section of the application labeled "bride." Court employees commented on "what pretty skin" McCain had, a court official said.
Before long, the two were on their way to Norfolk, marriage license in hand.
When they arrived at Norfolk Circuit Court later that day, little besides McCain's first name on the marriage license -- Justin -- caught the attention of Al Coward, the Norfolk marriage commissioner who performed the ceremony in less than 15 minutes.
"I said, 'I think the clerk has made a mistake,' " Coward said. "He/she said, 'No, that's the way it is.' I said, 'Ooo-kay.' . . . There's a lot of people that come in with strange names that are spelled differently."
Coward, 70, said the two were wearing street clothes, although he did not recall their specific physical appearances.
"It was just a regular day, a normal wedding. . . . Doubt never entered my mind because they had the license," he said.
The marriage might have gone virtually unnoticed had McCain not returned to the Newport News clerk's office in May to apply for an eye-catching name change: Penelopsky Aaryonna Goldberry.
"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.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.