Pregnant Man Thomas Beatie on Oprah
Filed under: News, TV Shows | By: Kerry
Posted on: April 4, 2008 | 42 Comments
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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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.