Pregnant Man Thomas Beatie on Oprah
Pregnant Man Thomas Beatie appeared on Oprah last night with his wife Nancy.
Thomas who is a transsexual man said that he is excited about the upcoming birth of his “miracle” child.
Thomas underwent gender reassignment surgery but kept his female reproductive organs. Thomas said that he “opted not to do anything to my reproductive organs because I wanted to have a child one day”.
During the show they broadcasted the ultrasound images and the audio of the baby’s heartbeat.
Thomas told Oprah that “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe she’s inside me. This is a miracle. We see this as a miracle. I see pregnancy as a process and it doesn’t define who I am. It’s not a male or female desire to want to have a child, it’s a human desire. I’m a person and I have the right to have my own biological child. I think that people will be shocked because no-one’s ever heard of a man giving birth before. I guess it’s a shocking concept, but in this day and age that’s possible. And it’s happening now.”
Thomas’s doctor Kimberley James, said that “This baby’s totally healthy and this is, I consider, an average pregnancy,”
What were your views of the show?
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Thomas is still a woman, wether he wants to admit it or not. It is not physically possible for a man to become pregnant. I feel sorry for the child who is going to be raised by a mother that’s really messed up in the head.
Dear Oprah, If “Thomas” still has female reproductive organs, and had/has monthly periods, I think “Thomas” is not a man. “Thomas” may want to be a man but men do not have vaginia’s, nor do they have a uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries. This is not rocket science. It is basic biology. You and your TV show is way to classy to have this kind of material aired on it. Of course that is my opinion. Thank you for listening. Karen
Couldn’t agree with kristina more…talk about a confusing conversation when the kid asks the age old question ‘daddy, er, mommy, where do babies come from?’
Kristina: Did you note that he also has a wife? The child will have both a “mother” and a “father.” children have all sorts of challenges growing up. Let’s just hope that other children (and adults) are not cruel enough to treat Thomas’s child different because of who the parents are.
And, for that matter, treat Thomas differently because of his physiology.
I’m surprised by the responses so far. He may be different, and the situation is different, but it will only be people like in the previous letters who will be mean enough to make things hard for that child. This life should be celebrated just like any other.
I think what Thomas is a huge miracle and I support what he is doing. There is no such rule that women are the only ones to be pregnant. Where does it say women are the ones to have children only? Exactly. What people don’t realize is that further into the future, women won’t be able to have children because they won’t be able to reproduce. Why can’t men have children? Besides I have known many people who once were women and wanted to men. Also the other way around. Who are we judge? Just like we don’t interfere with other cultures, we should let Thomas and his family do as they please by having this baby. It’s not everyday we can see a man pregnant with a baby. This way men can know how a woman feels when having a baby. Everyone has the right to do what they please and who are we to stand in the way. WE SUPPORT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.
I totally agree with veronica
Veronica,
I don’t think people really care whether this guy has his baby or not. More power to you Thomas. What people are saying is that he technically and biologically IS NOT a man.
I also have NO idea what you are talking about when you say “in the future women will not be able to reproduce”. That is just silly.
How can men know what it is like to have children? “Thomas” is not a man, has never been, and will never be. She had to discontinue her testosterone therapy to have a child! “Thomas” was not born a man, with the male genitalia and still does not have one. It is wrong what they are doing to that child. Wrong. Oprah did disappointment me. Oh, and one more thing, “Thomas” had to get rid of her chest to be a man.
Men will never know what it is like to have a baby because they are not women. ‘Thomas’ is a WOMAN no matter what he thinks, he is not a man giving birth to a child, she is a woman giving birth to a child. Everyone has the right to do as we please? Are you serious? If that is where the world is heading then why punish people for what they feel is right for them. This is a slap in the face to basic biology. I fear a world where my child has to grow up with no sense of the role of a man and the role of a woman.
Did I read? “There is no such rule that women are the only ones to be pregnant.” …… I have not read any rules that state otherwise. Also, I have never heard of a male human being, (testicles and penis-not a testosterone-enlarged clitoris)ever giving birth to a human beaing. Why? IT IS PHYSIOLIGICALLY IMPOSSIBLE. Men do not give birth to offspring. I do not care what she wants to be, if she has had a child develope within he both …
(SIC) her body, then she is a female. Sorry for the sloppy spelling, Veronica.
I’m a gynecologist and what Veronica forgot to mention is that Thomas aka Tracy is actually a woman. He was born a WOMAN. If Thomas was born a man there is no way he could ever get pregnant. Thomas needs to accept that he is a Woman who wants to be a man. If he wanted to be a man as much as he said he did in other interviews, then why did he keep his female organs. If women are not the only ones who will be able to get pregnant then God wasted his time creating EVE. He needs to accept the fact that he is a WOMAN and a WOMAN is the only one who can have a baby. Also, he LEGALLY became a man not BIOLOGICALLY. I don’t see anything wrong with HER carrying a baby that is what she is suppose to do.
i think this is totally crazy. its dumb. if the woman wanted to become a man she should have became a man not a woman\man. i think its an insult to ever WOMAN that has had a baby. it makes me sick to know that i just went through a miscarriage and here is some man having a baby. i think that he needs to grow some balls and not be so insulting!!
Veronica, Veronica, Veronica, We come with our equipment naturally, Men have penis’s and women have vaginas. If somehow our wires get crossed and we feel we have wrongly received our penis or vagina. Than we should seek help to deal with our confusion and if so deemed we are in fact wrongly equipped. We can be changed medically to become the other. If we want to be a man than naturally we would remove our vagina. It would be a miracle if a man gave birth through his penis but that so far is not how it works. Thomas Beatie needs to make up his mind because right “he” is a woman with no breasts and a beard. Being a man or a woman is not something you can do halfway. As a man comfortable with his equipment and wiring, child rearing never comes to mind because I am a man and I can not do it.
As a transman, I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the concept of a fellow transman wanting to get pregnant. I can only conclude that Beatie’s motives are questionable and that promoting his book or publicity to help flagging sales in his T-shirt business was the driving force here. There is no other rational explanation for all the publicity he purposely invited. That he would put these motives ahead of the safety of his wife and unborn child, I find deplorable.
It is unnatural, and impossible, for a man to have a child. Any woman who is in favor of giving up the natural responsibility of carrying a child and giving birth has my sympathy for not being grateful for this God given opportunity as a woman! Technology should never, ever, get good enough to take away the male/female gender role…epecially one as important as child birth!!!! I will never again watch Oprah for having condoned this disgusting display of disrespect for women!!!
Wow! When I first heard this story of a transgender man having a baby I thought it was a man who underwent the surgery in order to have a vagina and uterus! It turns out that a woman underwent a double masectomy or something and grew facial hair by taking testosterone, calls herself a man, and then gets pregnant. I was releived that we have not yet gone that far, but at the same time I feel like we’re all being pressurred to live a lie in calling a woman a man! If an African American bleaches their skin to “be White” that doesn’t change the fact that they are African American. You are free to do whatever you want in life and for Christ’s sake I pray that you are loved by all no matter what you do to yourself, or even others for that matter. But the definition of insanity is living in a reality that you believe to be true, but is ultimately not. It’s hard enough in this world for all of us, and especially the youth, to know what is true in this world. Please do not ask us to live a lie. But we all need to be there for each other no matter what stupid descions we will make each day.
Peace.
All i have to say is YOU DONT CHOOSE WHO YOU ARE. Everyone has a purpose in life and its just that some have to work alittle harder to get to what they aspire to be. As for the child, its not going to be any harder explaining this to the child then it would be for a rape victim to tell there child who the father is. Im sure that this is something he is not ashamed of and they will be completely upfront with the child. All the other parents that are around just need to teach there children respect and this child will grow up just fine and who knows may be our next president.
Thanks Veronica at least there someone with brains here.
It is not a miracle people. Its NOT a pregnant man. Its a woman who had her breasts removed, took meds so she could grow a beard, and now she is going to have a baby. She is still a woman no matter what she makes herself look like. I wish them no harm, and a healthy baby, but all the drugs she took to grow that beard and the muscles will no doubt harm that child in some way.
People this is completely wacked out. I feel sorry for this innocent little baby girl that is someday going to be asked by her friends so “your dad gave birth to you out of his MANGINA”??? I mean what in the heck is this Man/Woman smoking? I would honestly be embarrassed if i was the Man/Womans wife if my “husbands” boobs was bigger than mine lmao! What is our world coming to? Sheesh….
Now I don’t know if any of you are in church, but it is not meant for man to have a baby because if it were so it would be in the Bible. As far as Thomas goes he can do whatever he/she wants to do because we all have free will. But he/she needs to think about that child, no child gets to choose who they are born to or what situation they are born in but this child is going to be the one to suffer, because yes she will be famous for being the first child born from a man but she will also ever be able to escape from that title either,so in all fairness this is a cruel world and that child will need alot of prayer to be able to cope with society BELIEVE ME ON THAT!!
Thats just great. A woman can legally become a man, legally marry another woman, and I cant legally smoke weed in my own home.
Yes, Thomas is now considered a male, but he still possesses organs of a female’s anatomy.
It is not physically possible for men to bare children. Women have a womb but men do not. Not to mention that a male and female have different bone structures and the male would have difficulties carrying and giving birth to the child. A baby cannot be born through a penis, it must be born through a women’s vagina or through a c-section procedure. If a male were to carry a child, the child would push against the organs of that man and there would be about a 70% possiblity the male would die due to the strain on his organs. This case is unique though and if he wants to have a child, then so be it. It is unnaturual though. Oh well.
There is so much intolerance here, but I suppose that is to be expected. I know that most of it is due to ignorance, but it is nevertheless disturbing and hurtful. Just to let you know, it’s wrong to condemn transgendered people for being transgendered, or to insist that they “really” are the gender they were born with–just as wrong as it is to make blanket negative statements about Mexicans, or women, or black people.
However, I too find it a little unusual that this man is choosing to have a child. I’ve only known one transgendered person very closely, and so my knowledge of these things is by no means broad, but I doubt that my friend would ever want to be pregnant himself, especially if he had a wife who could have a child herself. My impression is that when you’re transgendered, you tend to want to fit into the gender role you identify with. But if this man wants to have a child, my perplexion doesn’t matter much–it’s just something that I have to figure out; it isn’t his problem.
Also, I think I’ll add this note to keep people better informed on the issue:
Sometimes (often, actually) transgendered people will NOT undergo complete gender reassignment surgery, because the current technology makes this surgery imperfect. It carries some risks of sensory damage and can forever change the way that one experiences sex–not generally for the better. If one is a female transitioning to a male, as Thomas is, it is especially difficult; you can’t make a fully functioning penis out of a vagina. Someday, perhaps, that will change.
Furthermore, I am not at all worried about the child Thomas and his wife are having. As she grows up, she will learn (if they are conscientious parents) that gender roles are more flexible than society generally tells us; and this is a healthy thing. She will learn to accept people for who they are, and not base judgments on gender, or sexuality. Some people, like some of the people who have responded here with cruel words, will be cruel to her because of who her parents are, but my hope is that in her lifetime that sort of prejudice will decrease, as it has during mine. Good luck to the three of them.
Technically, (and as far as I know this has never been tested with humans) a male can become pregnant. There are places, certain organs I suppose, that are able to provide an adequate environment for a fetus. Of course, anyone who tried this would have to be given extra shots of nutrients and hormones (etc etc) and would have to get a c-section, since a natural birth would be pretty much impossible. But it could work. They’ve tried it on mice or something.
The kicker for me is that he was allowed to change his gender LEGALLY that is, and be allowed to MARRY LEGALLY another woman.
Any woman can have surgery blah blah blah. I just do not think you should be able to make it legal.
The birth is just a spin off from that. Deplorable really. People playing GOD. God wouldn’t like it that’s for sure.
I am not sure either of these people could be sane. I do not look at it as intolerance. It’s God’s laws not mine. I make no distinction between a black and and a white man, a poor man or a rich man. I feel like someone is going to be terribly hurt in the long run, that child!
I suggest you refer to the text Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein, a text a read in my Gender Lit Theory course. Bornstein explores misconceptions about gender: one’s gender is invarient; genitals are the essential sign of gender; everyone must be classified as a member of one gender or another. A few other intersting ideas she presents: “Most folks would define a man by the presence of a penis or some form of a penis…It’s not that simple though. I know several women in San Francisco who have penises. Many wonderful men in my life have vaginas (56). Finally, Bornstein explores how gender is a social construct: “I’ve come to see the gender system created by this culture as a particularly malevolent and divisive construct, made all the more dangerous by the seeming inability of the culture to question gender, its own creation” (12). The fact that Oprah is willing to address traditional conceptions of gender helps bring Bornstein’s central ideas to the mainstream. Was Oprah looking for ratings? Possibly, Probably–but this is a conversation that is worth having.
Those people who think this is normal should ask themselves if they would want their parents to be like Thomas and her wife. Talk about confusion, I would be confused if they were my parents. Those of you who dont mind this, are not straight. I understand that gay people see this as no problem, but you know, gay people are confused about sexuality. I know enough of them to know that they are. I know that many of you will jump all over me, but if you realy think about it, you realize that it is true.
This woman is not a man. The funny thing is that you need to go through a process to get a license to drive, but it does not matter who you are, you can qualify to bring a human being in this world and raise them as screwed up as you wish. I find that very strange, but we live in a strange world.
“Everyone is free to do what they please” Sure, but what will be the consequences? If I don’t like someone, technically I’m free to slash their tires or something, but that doesn’t make it right.
The birth of a child is always a miracle. But anyone can realize that this child will have an extremely tough time growing up because of the decisions the parents have made. Does no one remember how we all got here? It was one man and one woman making a baby. Yeah - the old fashioned way. Do none of these people feel something in their hearts when they make decisions like this, to dramatically change who God made them to be? Yes they will always be loved by Him because that is his promise. And we cannot judge them because no one besides God has the right to judge. But is there no one who has been there for them to try and show them God’s way? Please keep this family in your prayers, but don’t try and make life harder for them.
And to Stephanie, who clearly notes “You don’t choose who you are”, that is completely correct. So why did this woman, like many others, spend so much money and time trying to change who they were chosen to be? I too have young children and am so scared for them because parenting is hard enough already, and the thought of what the world is turning into is very scary. TOLERANCE is a bunch of crap, and everyone knows is. Life isn’t about letting everyone do what they want so that no one’s feelings get hurt, it’s about doing what is right.
what’s happening to me?
Hi.. You know you can say its a man all you want..But bottom line its still a WOMAN having the baby.. After all the sperm that got her pregnant came from a REAL MAN.
(( not a man want to be)).
And will all those pill she took to grow hair on her face and body hurt the baby..
In the end the baby is what counts here.
I truly believe that there is no other experience
more wonderful than having a baby to fell that child move in our body and to know that you brought this sweet life in to this world.
I wish that child good health and a good life..Free from .. those who will make fun of that child for the what his or her parents felt was a good choice.. Little unbore child I wish you all the best in life…
Wow. I’m kind of shocked by how closed-minded a lot of these responses are, particularly the adamant nature with which everyone maintains that Thomas is ‘actually’ a woman because he has female reproductive organs.
No, this is not a ‘miracle’ in the sense that a man who was born a man was somehow able to become pregnant. It is a miracle because Thomas is a man (to himself, to the public, to his wife) and is carrying this child to term.
What could possibly be bad about that?
I don’t understand the need that others seem to have to invalidate Thomas’ sexuality. In the eyes of the law and the people he interacts with, he is a man. Clearly having a show on transgendered people and the issues they face would be extremely useful to Oprah’s audience…then maybe they would treat Thomas with a sense of integrity, rather than seeing him as “a man want to be.”
“but men do not have vaginia’s, nor do they have a uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries.”
This is wrong.
Woman are meant to have children not men, thats how God created the world.
God created us to eat food that is grown from the ground.But thats not what we eatingtoday.Did God create us to wear pants and dresses.Isnt this the same thing?
I don’t think its the same thing. There’s a BIG difference between women/man and trees. god did not create clothes, man did.
In my opinion, Thomas is a woman no matter what he says. A man doesnt have a special body to consive a baby. I think God is perfect and He created man and woman differently. Men do not have vaginia’s, nor do they have a uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries. The only important thing here is that the baby is healthy.
“Men do not have vaginia’s, nor do they have a uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries.”
I some cases they do (it has to do with the sexual differentation in the 7th week in uterus, when body-parts go the female or male direction - remember in the first weeks every human being is biologically neither male nor female, everyone has organs that can develope male and female and in some cases man can develop female reproductive organs). This is nature and part of the truth. Why do some people have such big problems with the truth? It’s a shame.