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Oct 6, 2006 6:16 pm US/Eastern
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Man Resists Paying Alimony To A Man
by Joy Purdy
SEMINOLE, FL (CBS4 News) ―
This is a story about a sex change controversy that has people and lawyers asking—should a man have to pay alimony to a man?
Lawrence Roach still finds it hard to believe that he's fighting this battle. He does not want to pay alimony to his ex-wife, because she's no longer a woman.
"This is just not right," Road said. "It's humiliating to me, degrading and really, you know, I'm a man and I don't want to be paying alimony to a man."
Roach and his ex-wife, who we are not identifying, were married for more than 17 years, then divorced a year and a half ago. After the divorce, Roach was ordered to pay more than $ 1,200 a month to his ex-wife in alimony -- a payment he says, should now be voided.
"If you can't be married to a man legally, how can you pay alimony to a man?" he said.
Roach says his ex-wife had a sex change operation, and is now living as a man, with a new identity. Roach feels he shouldn't have to pay alimony anymore because his ex-wife is no longer the person he married.
Still, legal experts say--sex change or not--Roach is legally bound.
"His divorce decree is basically a contract that he's going to have to follow," said legal analyst Joe Episcopo. "Alimony is based on their relationship while they were married, not after the marriage is over."
Episcopo, says unless Roach's ex-wife remarries, or one of them dies, Roach is required by law and his contract to pay alimony for life, a law Roach feels is unfair, and is now trying to change.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)