Pregnant Man Births Again (almost)

Expectant mother Thomas Beatie, (who is technically, sort of a man) announced he is expecting his third child with his wife, Nancy. The couple already has a daughter and son, the first born in 2007 catapulting Thomas to international speculation and wonder as we all stared at what was a pregnant man.

Who is this, some of you may ask? Well, for those of you that didn't catch the famous Oprah episode, Thomas was born a woman, but underwent sex reassignment surgery. But, during the surgery he (since he identifies as a man and lives as one we call him a man even though technicaly I guess he's still a woman) did not have his reproductive organs removed. When he and his wife Nancy decided to have kids, Nancy was unable to since she had already undergone a hysterectomy. Logically then, the "father" would birth these babies, right? In most cases no, but in this case, with ovaries and uterus in check, Thomas was able to jump right in.

Check out the before and after photos (courtesy of The Daily Mail).

It's all pretty surreal to look at the photos. I mean, you are staring into the face of a man who is visibly pregnant. Our minds (at least as regular little pea-sized brained people like myself) do not know how to process the information. We all understand transgender, to a point, I think. We can tell oursevles, "Okay, this man was born a woman, but always felt like a man. So, he underwent surgery to look like what he identified with." I get that, support that and although I don't understand what that feels like, most certainly would want any person to live they way they feel. But to see a man being pregnant? I can't even comprehend it, logically. I am in full support of him having a kid, oddly enough (most people seem to think his decision is going to hurt the children). I think he should be able to be happy, live a "normal" life with his wife, and have all the dreams made a reality that any other person can. But, I'll be honest, it's just plain weird to see it.

I do, however, applaud Thomas and his wife for making it public and sharing their story. For being the circus freak show and saying "We don't really care what you think, we're happy and this is what we're doing." Makes me wish I had a little more circus freak mentality in me.

I'm not really sure who is the biologically mommy or daddy. I imagine Thomas is "dad" and Nancy "mom" but again I don't know. But the kids seem happy (most importantly). The parents seem happy (very important). And, they didn't birth 8 at a time making the United States pay for this "experiment." I mean, seriously, who can look at that picture and honestly say this is a bad thing? Baby smiles, mommy and daddy smiles. Hell, it makes me smile.

Photo courtesy of MomLogic.

I geniunely do admire and applaud this family, even though it messes with my head every time I see "the pregnant man." I wish we could all have a little circus freak in us. Maybe then we'd all be a lot more accepting, a lot less judgemental and alot happier with ourselves.