ABSTRACT
Sex and marriage are interdependent; indeed, the definition of the latter depends upon that of the former. The official status of a marriage is ensured by the legal need to accept a number of associated preliminaries and ceremonies. The state has a continuing interest in keeping records of marriages for purposes such as the payment of welfare benefits. Consummation of marriage is more a matter of sexual intercourse and reproduction and will be considered as a separate issue. The common way of diagnosing the sex of a baby is to look at the genitalia which are normally differentiated after the fourth month of gestation. The testes are present in the male scrotum and the female vulva is formed by the time of birth. Transsexual marriage is a continuing saga and the United Kingdom position has been attacked from a relatively novel angle.
