HOUSTON (AP) – A woman was granted a divorce from a man who legally had declared himself a female and claimed their relationship was a same-sex union that should not be recognized as a marriage.

State District Judge Lisa Ann Millard found James Howard Murphy, now known as Linda Gail Carter, is biologically a male and was a man when he married Constance Gonzales, a female.

“The court finds there is no same-sex marriage issue,” Millard said. “The court hereby grants divorce.”

Millard divided the couple’s property, giving Gonzales 65 percent of the proceeds of the sale of a property they owned and Carter 35 percent. The judge plans to issue a final order later this month.

Jerry Simoneaux, whose Houston law firm specializes in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues, said if the marriage was declared a same-sex union and void in Texas, any community property would revert to separate property, even if it was collected during the marriage.

“That is what one of the participants was trying to do, was get this marriage declared void so she could keep all of the property separate,” he said.

Carter, who refers to herself as a female and legally had her name and sex changed on her driver’s license, wore a suit coat and pants to court. Her gray hair was pulled back at the nape of her neck.

“It’s not over,” Carter, 60, said in a brief comment as she left the Harris County courthouse.

“We’re glad that this is all over with,” Gonzales said. “We’re pleased with the way everything turned out. Emotionally it has been extremely stressful for me and my family.”

Carter and Gonzales were married by a minister in Las Vegas in 1998.

Carter claimed she had her sex legally declared female more than four months before the wedding.

Gonzales, who says she lived in Houston with Carter until March 2003, filed for divorce. Carter contended the marriage should not have been recognized because both are female and Texas does not recognize same-sex unions.

A Texas appeals panel ruled in 1999 that a person’s sex is determined by chromosomes.

Chromosomal testing ordered by the judge found Carter, who is listed on her driver’s license as 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds, was “a biologically male person,” the judge said.

“We have a person who is legally female, but because of her chromosomes a judge has deemed her male,” Simoneaux said. “A person’s gender is much more than chromosomes and there is a problem with people having ambiguous chromosomes. If this goes up on appeal, there is a very strong argument that the Texas rule is on very shaky ground.”

Richard Carlson, a law professor at South Texas College of Law, said the law is unsettled in Texas about whether a person can change gender.

“There isn’t a whole lot of precedent dealing yet with the whole problem of changing one’s gender,” he said. “In a lot of states, including Texas, it would unsafe to assume you can change your gender in terms of family law.”

Carlson said changing one’s gender can be effective in a variety of ways, “but that doesn’t mean for marriage purposes you can deem yourself to be of a new gender.”