Thomas Beatie’s got some balls. No, not literally, but you’ve got to give him credit for telling all on Oprah. Yeah, the pregnant trans man made a splash with his Advocate admission, but nothing compares to the attention he’ll receive after this appearance.
Above you’ll see Beatie and his wife, Nancy discussing the insemination process, sound effects and all. More impressively, Nancy’s grown daughters praise Nancy and Thomas as nuptial role models who are “regular” and “very much in love.” Oprah approves, of course. Will her viewers?
After the jump, the couple talks being rejected by nine doctor. Their current doctor, meanwhile, describes Thomas’ pregnancy as “average.”
yaksha2
I’m always at odds with mainstream media trying to “normalize” queer lived experiences instead of just listening. However, it’s hard to criticize Beatie and his spouse for their attempt considering how much doctors and “support” institutions abandoned them again and again. They paid their queer dues, perhaps.
Although Oprah should be smacked for asking about her genitals. So passe for a media diva to do.
dude love
I bet you that the twat Fred Phelps and his unholy band of demons will try and harrass this guy because he was once a woman and became a man and married a woman….I’m confused, though….If someone is born a man and has a sex change operation and becomes a woman and starts dating men, does that make them ‘gay’? since they were BORN male?!??!…I wonder what Phelp Whelp has to say about that….ah, never mind, he’s a twat and thats that.
Beatie, I hope you baby is born healthy and well.
emb
Much as I wish all happiness and health to these folks, I can’t help but think that the utterly shameless self-promotion is not doing anybody any good. MAYBE it’s a step toward “normalizing” the public view of transgendered persons, or more likely it’s simply a freak show.
And as for a transgender person embracing their nature and choosing to undergo surgery and chemical treatments to achieve truth in their life, then somehow managing to justify holding on to the bits that define them physically as the “other” or “wrong” gender, and choosing to function as that “wrong” gender by getting pregnant and carrying a child, well…that does a fair amount of damage insofar as it adds credence to those who lump all of us, trans and homo alike, into the “lifestyle choice” bucket.
So thanks a lot. Hope the checks from various media help with college expenses.
GayBobVT
Thank you EMB. You’ve put into words what I know I’ve been thinking and I’m sure many others. How much more effective to the “normalizing” of the public view would it have been if they had waited until after the child’s birth – even a year or two – to show that it ain’t the end of the world as we know it (see the Joe Scarborough entry). As it is now if anything does go wrong, it’ll just be another chapter in Ripley’s Believe it or Not.
Bill
I’m sorry, but being transgender and being queer are two very different experiences. I don’t appreciate being lumped together with people who have to cut up their bodies to feel normal. Although, they do have the right to live their lives as they see fit. Just as long as you aren’t harming anyone else.
rsl72346
Thanks EMB.
Personally, I don’t care if the state has declared this person to be a Cadillac, SHE isn’t.
She is just another butch lesbian with no tits making a freak show of herself for money.
CT-n-SF
EMB said it so well, I must repeat it: “Much as I wish all happiness and health to these folks, I can’t help but think that the utterly shameless self-promotion is not doing anybody any good.”
chris king
I wish these two people happiness. that said, I am disgusted by the way the media is pushing this story. This is no man having a baby. THis is a Transexual having a baby. Two very different things. Are people trying to confuse our children? MEN DO NOT HAVE BABIES! Them crying about possible retaliation, is 100% their fault. Had they kept the LIE quite, there would be no reason to feel threatened.
Tim
This is a woman having a baby. It’s that simple. Science continues to tell us that only female humans can have babies. There’s no need to be repulsed or get worked up, but this Beatie person is essentially a bearded lady. No WONDER the general public views this as a freak show! What other outcome could reasonably be expected?
AJ
To quote biological anthropologist Patrick Chapman:
“Sex, a biological entity, and gender, the socially constructed roles we play in society, are not synonyms. The folk belief in American society, which recognizes only two sexes and two genders, is that a person’s sex determines his or her gender: all biological males are gendered masculine and all biological females are gendered feminine. Our language reinforces this “reality:†we say ‘he’ and ‘she,’ implying there are only two sexes and two genders. We have no pronouns for biologically intersex individuals (sometimes called hermaphrodites), or for individuals who are transgender. However, other societies do not necessarily accept our binary construct and interchangeable sex and gender categories.”
Utterly shameless self-promotion? Another chapter in Ripley’s Believe It or Not? Managing to justify holding on to the bits that define them physically as the ‘wrong’ gender? People who have to cut up their bodies to feel normal? Another butch lesbian with no tits making a freak show of herself for money? The internalized heterosexism of these comments is truly astounding.
I congratulate Thomas Beatie and his partner and hope that our society eventually moves beyond its obsession with the binary gender trap. Thomas and Nancy Beatie are true pioneers.
hisurfer
But aren’t these two playing right into the “binary gender trap?” Thomas did not have gender reassignment surgery. He took hormones and had his breasts reduced. He stopped taking hormones. How is this “gender reassignment?” This only makes him “male” IF we force people into one of two genders.
More and more I think this is much ado about nothing. Women have lived as men before, and then gotten pregnant. The difference here is the going on Oprah.
Ryan
I used to work with Nancy and Tom (back then he was Tracy) They were both body builders and very involved with gay activism in Hawaii, we sat on the steering committee for an organization called civil unions – civil rights (back in 2000 or so, I believe it is now defunct) They are both very nice humble people who did alot for the community. It actually took me a while to realize who they were until I saw Nancy today.
For better or worse they are people living their lives, its very easy to look at people in the media and forget that they are still human beings.
While I can certainly see how someone could argue that gay rights and transgender rights are entirely different beasts, (being two entirely different states of being, that can, but do not necessarily have to interact) it is important to remember that civil rights, do not solely belong to one group, and that until we are willing to embrace and work for equal rights for everyone and not just our own community we’re just treading water.
It wasn’t so long ago that two men discussing their love for one another on national television would have drawn the same kind of ire from talking heads and from the population at large (and perhaps even members of our own community) in this country. Everyone is of course entitled to their opinion, but just remember that discrimination is discrimination, no matter who is doing it to who. Nancy and Tom are still people and deserving of the respect due all human beings, even if you don’t agree with what they are doing or how they are doing it.
Joe
Does the preganant partner continue taking hormones? How does he keep the facial hair if he has stopped? Testosteron shots can’t be good for babies
Smartypants
What an down-to-earth, loving family. Oprah handled this very well with everyone keeping a sense of humor. The impact of her modeling respect and decency cannot be underestimated.
yaksha2
You know, sometimes the readers of Queerty surprise the gay out of me.
“Personally I don’t care if the state has declared this person to be a cadillac, she ISN’T!”
Who the hell are you to be telling us what this guy is or is not ? Just because you suck dick for pleasure doesn’t mean you’re not a child of God who should marry women and make babies.
I hope you never enter into a situation where your dick isn’t there and other men don’t see you as male anymore.
Mostly, I hope you had a fine and dandy upbringing where you were never ridiculed or punished for having same sex attraction, because if you were oppressed, it just means you’re an idiot who never learned what hate really does to people.
M Shane
The problem is, I think exposing this ambiguous situation (hisurfer & AJ? ) which cannot be defined even in popular Transexual terms.( I have worked with transexuals of all sorts in a hospital situation) My first response to the situation was, how could this be carried off hormonally (if she was on a “male ” regimen) when that would abort or damage the baby: no wonder a doctor wouldn’t take responsability. Now, I come to understand that he/she isn’t on male hormones and is performing a female function she’s really not much more than a woman-lesbian without breasts.( at this point).
I don’t see anything wrong with this alternate life decision except that it is really confusing to the people on Opra who could do well to understand transexuals, but are, in fact, being
defrauded. since they have someone who is not even in the most minimal(homonal ) way
transexual. I have engaged in working with people who are even getting a penis made.
Usually people who are despirate enough to go through the change don’t go back and forth
with comfort. presumably Tom woud hate this female form. Why is Nancy not having the baby if she is a female? If she can’t why not adopt?
I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but there seems to be an aspect of exhibitionism here.
Going to Opra really presses buttons. Most people who watch those shows have more sense than a turnip.
M Shane
addendum “no more sense”(above sent.)
Rebecca
AJ – very well said! Thank you for being so eloquent.
My best to Thomas and his wife.
Media
Personally I’ve found this story to be very frustrating. The media is calling this person a “Man” when “he” is really a biological “WOMAN” who has gone through partial sex reassignment. He (to be polite) still has “his” FEMALE reproductive organs intact.
So in other words – we have a WOMAN who became pregnant, not a man. NOT a man. No story here.
Average person
He said on Oprah that he has grown a penis
and can have intercourse. Would someone please
explain???
M Shane
I worked in surical proceedures with transexual operations earlier on, so I don’t know what the improvements are, but, I expect that the basic idea is similar. The metaphore have “grown” is confusing. What we did was to take a flap of flesh and skin starting at the bellybotton and cutting toward the urethra and to role that flap into a penislike cylinder which did have to grow together so that it extended the urethra, and the subject could urinate out of the tube as it grew together. I think that eventually apparatuses have been implanted
which blow up like an erection, and that possbly even erectile tissue has been taken from the clitorus, and moved to the far end of the “penis”.
This may not be current because the people who specialize in this kind of surgery have been working at different proceedures.