The Portland Tribune has this interesting story about a man, Ron Ross, who has now become transgendered. He has been taking hormones for a while and soon will have the surgery to officially reassign his gender to his new identity as Donna Ross.

What really captured my attention was one particular paragraph in the story:

But she says the acceptance of most co-workers and friends, and support from Christy [Ron/Donna’s wife], has made the transition easier. (Donna and Christy apparently can continue to be legally married, because Ron the man married Christy the woman, and the state cannot undo marriages.)

I see! Donna, now a woman by every legal definition, can be married to Christy, a woman by every legal definition. But this is only possible because the original marriage was between Ron and Christy, one man and one woman.

There’s your solution to gay marriage! One of the gay partners simply needs to have gender-reassignment surgery, then they can be married as an opposite-sex couple. Once the marriage is final, then the gender-reassigned partner can go back and have gender-re-reassignment surgery. Oh, sure, it’ll cost you a few thousand dollars and the physical risks of two serious surgeries, but anything is worth the cost of protecting the “sanctity” of marriage.

In other news, Britney Spears just had her second marriage to one of her backup dancers, who just happened to have his second out-of-wedlock child with his former girlfriend. Let the “sanctity” continue!