American, duped into marriage with a “man”, seeks annulment

An American man, alleging that he was deceived into marrying a “woman” whom he later found to be a male gay, has filed a petition in court to nullify  his marriage.

Gerard Brainard III narrated that he was once looking for someone to be his partner in life, and in April 2006, he met online a “woman” through a dating website in the Internet.

For two months, Brainard said he and the “woman” enjoyed hours of talking on the phone and webcam, and exchanging e-mails until they finally decided to get married.

All along, however, Brainard thought was that he was going to marry the right woman to be his wife. He immediately flew to the Philippines, brimming with excitement that he would finally meet his bride-to-be personally.

The given name of the “woman” at the time was not yet disclosed to the media but in his filed petition, the name was stated as Lou Vincent Suarez.

Brainard and Suarez eventually got married on June 27, 2006 in a civil rite at a Municipal Trial Court in Cebu City.

On their first night however as “husband and wife,” Brainard discovered that his “wife” was actually a man like him. Suarez then admitted that he was a gay but he tried to reason out that their “marriage” could still be justified because he felt and acted like a woman.

But Brainard immediately left the country, after telling his “wife” that he could never stay married to a man.

Brainard, through his counsel, filed the petition for nullity of marriage under Article 2 of the Family Code of the Philippines. He said that under the law, the legal requirement for a marriage is that the contracting parties must be male and female.

Brainard also quoted Article 4 of the Family Code which states that in “the absence of the said requirement the marriage shall be rendered void ab initio or void from the very beginning.” — Fred P. Languido/RAE