Ananova:

A man who went through a sex change operation to become a woman has failed in a High Court bid to have her marriage declared legal.

Mr Justice Johnson, who during the hearing last month said he was "sympathetic" towards the transsexual's plea, said the law as it stood prevented him declaring the marriage valid.

The transsexual, who became a father during his first marriage, went through a sex change operation in 1981 and as Elizabeth married Michael Bellinger at Southwark Register Office in south London in the same year.

Mrs Bellinger petitioned the High Court, saying the couple "lived and cohabited together happily" since the marriage which she wanted declared legal. The couple, who are middle-aged, challenged established UK law that allows marriage between a couple only when their birth certificates show they are of opposite sexes.

Mr Justice Johnson refused an application to take the case to the Court of Appeal.

Their plea was challenged by the Attorney General who said that although they went through a marriage ceremony in front of a registrar, because Elizabeth has never been a female within the meaning of the Matrimonial Causes Act, it was not lawful. The couple, who live in Lincoln, did not have to show the registrar their birth certificates before they went through the ceremony.

Ashley Bayston, representing Elizabeth, described her client as "a male to female post-operative transsexual" who had always considered herself to be female.

Her father registered her as a male but she displayed feminine behaviour and was dressed as a girl by her mother, then forced to act as a boy when she went to school.

Ms Bayston said Elizabeth was then "forced into marriage" with a woman by church elders and there was a sexual relationship and children were born. She said her client eventually "broke free" and lived as a woman from 1971, beginning treatment at Charing Cross Hospital which eventually led to surgery.

Elizabeth met her future husband in 1980 while studying for a degree in economics - before the final surgery to remove male genitals.