A man is pregnant, for the first time in history. His name is Thomas Beatie.But he didn’t start out life as a man, although he is now legally recognizedas one.Thomas Beatie grew up in beautiful Hawaii possessing female genitalia, buthe never felt like a woman. After participating in beauty contests and working toward a black belt in a major Martial Arts discipline, Thomasdecided to get reconstructive surgery in which his breasts were removed.He also began testosterone injections to give him more masculine features.But Thomas Beatie decided to keep his ovaries and other female organs, just in case he ever wanted to have a child.Five years ago Thomas Beatie married a delightful woman by the name of Nancy Rogers. Most of Nancy’s family to this day still does not know thather husband Thomas was born a female.The couple were happy in the initial years of their marriage, but soon aproblem developed. Thomas Beatie wanted children. But because Nancy had a prior case of endometriosis, her uterus had been removed and shecould no longer have children.But Thomas Beatie still had all the necessary female parts for humanreproduction.So he decided to do what his wife could no longer do.Beatie appeared on a recent Oprah Winfrey show with Nancy andannounced that he is pregnant. His personal physician even confirmed thetransgender pregnancy. During the show, Thomas had a clearly visiblepaunch, and we now know all that flesh was housing a baby girl.Concerning physicians, the couple had to go through nine of them beforefinding one who was willing to take on their special circumstances. ThomasBeatie responded to the search in this way: “Health care professionals haverefused to call me by a male pronoun or recognize Nancy as my wife.Receptionists have laughed at us.” Later he went on to say, “We have only begun experiencing opposition from people who are upset by our situation.Doctors have discriminated against us, turning us away due to their
religious beliefs.” The couple’s present personal physician, however, hascalled the pregnancy completely normal.Beatie and his wife currently reside in Oregon, where they run a successfulT-shirt printing business, although Thomas was born in Hawaii where hegrew up as Tracy Lagondino. After he met Nancy Roberts he immediately wanted to marry her, but since Hawaii did not recognize same-sexmarriages, he decided to change his sex. Surgery removed his breasts, buthe decided to leave all of his female organs in tact. Beatie told Oprah: “Iopted not to do anything with my reproductive organs because I wanted tohave a child one day.”The couple purchased sperm from a donor center and now Beatie is sixmonths into the pregnancy. They said it took a full year of attempts beforethey were able to get access to the sperm bank, where they purchased a vial by an anonymous donor.Thomas Beatie and Nancy have been married for over five years now. His wife had two daughters prior to their marriage, which are both grownadults, and they fully support their mother’s unusual maritalcircumstances. Even though Beatie is giving birth to their child, his role willstill be as a father once the little one exits his womb, while Nancy will act asthe mother. “It’s not a male or female desire to have a child. It’s a humandesire,” Beatie said. “Our situation sparks legal, political, and socialunknowns.”Even though he is currently pregnant, Beatie says he still feels very muchlike a man: “Despite the fact that my belly is growing with a new life insideme, I am stable and confident being the man that I am. In a technical senseI see myself as my own surrogate, though my gender identity as male isconstant.”Thomas Beatie became pregnant once before this, but doctors discoveredthree fully-formed embryos in one of his fallopian tubes, and surgery toremove them was required. Beatie said his brother commented on thatsituation thus: “It’s a good thing that happened. Who knows what kind of monster it would have been.” So far in the second pregnancy, there have been no complications.On her show, Opray Winfrey asked Beatie about his “male” parts. He statedthat when testosterone was introduced into his female body, a certain partof his old female equipment elongated to form into a small male organ. He went on to claim that he is now able to have normal male-to-female sexualrelations (intercourse) with his wife. (But personally I find this rather hardto believe.)
The couple have now went “underground” to finish out the last few monthsof the pregnancy without being bothered too much by the paparazzi andother media.Not surprisingly, Thomas Beatie is working on a book. He said it willconcern his difficult childhood, his mother’s tragic suicide, and his timegrowing up in Hawaii. I’m sure the book will become a bestseller when it ispublished.His due date is July 3rd of 2008.NEWSFLASH: Thomas Beatie gave birth to a 9 pound 5 ounce girl namedSusan Juliette Beatie on the 29 of June, 2008. During delivery certain
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complications arose that almost made a C-section necessary, but in the enda normal vaginal birth by Thomas was accomplished and the baby girl isfine and healthy. The father, mother, and baby went into seclusion from thepaparazzi after leaving the hospital and many tabloids concocted false and vicious news stories about the couple, stating their marriage was no longerstable, and that Thomas wasn’t coping well with parenthood and the media,among other untrue allegations. But Beatie recently told Barbara Walterson her popular television show, The View, that he is pregnant yet again.
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