UPDATE: Pregnant man pregnant again

November 16, 2008

Thomas Beatie aka "The pregnant man" is pregnant for the second time. He gave birth to a healthy girl on June 29th. He is considered a transman: female-to-male transition and clearly has not undergone gender reassignment surgery - though he has had a double mastectomy. Since he has had prior testosterone injections, his clitoris has hypertrophied into a "penis" and he is able to grow facial hair. His wife had a hysterectomy but is able to breastfeed. Nine doctors refused to inseminate him - so they bought sperm over the internet and his wife inseminated him with a syringe from a pet store.

Female factoid: He was a Miss Teen Hawaii finalist and modeled.

He told Oprah: "I actually opted not to do anything to my reproductive organs because I wanted to have a child one day. I see pregnancy as a process and it doesn't define who I am. I feel it's not a male or female desire to have a child. It's a human need. I'm a person and I have the right to have a biological child."

Yes, he has the right to do anything he wants - but he has involved an innocent soul. What about her needs? She had no choice in the matter - nor will the next. And what about the donor sperm? How well was it and the donor screened? How do they really know whose sperm it was?

How is a woman a man when he intentionally preserved his right to be pregnant? Pregnancy is the fundamental essence of femaleness. How can one be a man and yet retain his femaleness? I don't buy it. Especially when they started out in a lesbian relationship and she had been married and has two children in their late 20's.

How much are their children going to suffer because of his need and his right to do whatever he wants? They've gone on so many press junkets that the information is all over the internet and it will be there for every one of the kids' classmates to find. How much thought did they give to that? What he and his wife have done is the ultimate act of selfishness. My opinion.

Full Barbara Walters 20/20 interview.
Teaser from The View.

video courtesy of silveryseven
Excerpt from the show courtesy of StephanieKayStevens


UPDATE: He was on Larry King tonite (11-17) to hawk his book, their business, their TV special and to find a lawyer to help them with the birth certificate. Wonder how much money he's made so far and whether it has been put into trust for his children's therapy bills.

Telling quotes:
BEATIE: I have a very real need to pass down my genes, so we were going to try that first and then look into surrogacy.

KING: What would happen if, god forbid, you pass away? Would somebody fight over this baby?

BEATIE: It's very likely. That's what I'm very afraid of and that's why we need help. We need an attorney to help us make it right.

KING: Is it you can't afford one?

BEATIE: No. We -- we'd like the help of any attorney that could help us. We did approach the ACLU. Unfortunately, they declined to help.

BEATIE: Well, babies aren't born with prejudice or bias.

BEATIE: They're taught it. Absolutely. We're going to raise our daughter with dignity and respect for other people. You know, a lot of children go through -- they get teased, et cetera, but we're not going to allow other people's opinion of us to --

BEATIE: When I got a little bit older, mainly when I hit my teens and my father pressured me to enter a beauty pageant and do some modeling, I started to feel conflicted.

BEATIE: It wasn't terrible. When I hit my college years, I realized there was another path in life I could choose and to follow my heart.

A mother emailed him to tell him she sat her 7 y/o son down to watch Barbara Walters' interview so the child could understand diversity in the world. I must be living on another planet when it's ok to thoroughly confuse a 7 y/o in the name of tolerance. There is not a single 7 y/o - no matter how enlightened or tolerant - who has the mental capacity to understand the complexities of gender, sexuality, homosexuality, heterosexuality, gender identity disorder, transgenderism, hermaphroditism, gender reassignment surgery, artificial insemination, sperm donors, pregnancy and/or surrogate breastfeeding. Imagine what will go through this child's mind when he comes across a less than masculine looking man with a mustache and protuberant abdomen or God forbid an unfortunately hirsute pregnant woman.