Thomas Beatie and his wife, Nancy, are expecting their first child, a girl. The pregnancy has gone well, and Thomas's estimated due date is July 3rd.
Born a woman, Thomas Beatie underwent gender reassignment therapy and is now legally male. Nancy Beatie is unable to bear children, having had a hysterectomy after developing endometriosis. So, when the couple wanted to have children, Thomas stopped taking his testosterone injections and, within four months, experienced his first menstrual cycle in eight years. His gender reassignment included chest reconstruction and hormone therapy, but he retained his reproductive organs rather than undergo sterilization. Beatie became pregnant through in-home fertilization after the couple purchased sperm from a sperm bank.
Beatie is not the first man to deliver a baby. Patrick Califia-Rice and his partner, Matt, are raising a baby, Blake. Both Patrick and Matt were born female, and Matt, like Thomas Beatie, chose to temporarily halt testosterone therapy to allow for pregnancy. Incidentally, Patrick has fibromyalgia. Matt and Patrick live in San Francisco and enjoy what they call a "small island of acceptance" in the city they call home, surrounded by friends described as enthusiastic and supportive.
Male pregnancy has been a hot topic in recent years, with advances in medical science making pregnancy a theoretical possibility even for natural-born men. When Sanju Bhagat of India was found to have harbored a parasitic twin in his abdomen for almost forty years, the news (and the successful removal of the twin) sparked headlines like, "A Pregnant Man?" Bhagat's parasitic twin stayed alive by using his organs to supply it with blood, much as a fetus could theoretically survive in the male abdomen by attaching its umbilical cord to an organ, as can occur during ectopic pregnancy. Mr. Lee Mingwei of Manhattan maintains a website, MalePregnancy.com, intended to provoke discussion.
Thomas Beatie, whether intentionally or not, has done just that. His pregnancy has provoked reactions ranging from horror to cheers throughout the world, and at all ends of the political spectrum. A blogger identifying himself as McCain (presumably, not the presidential candidate), anticipates that Beatie's baby will be "one screwed up kid," and calls Thomas a "freaky liberal." Some of Beatie's neighbors disbelieve the pregnancy story entirely, suspecting a hoax. The feminist blog Blue Milk, however, applauds Beatie for outing himself as a pregnant man, crediting him with, "bravely and calmly taking us all towards a better understanding of the fluidity of gender."
Beatie's pregnancy, whether it's a hoax or the true story of a pregnant dad, is sure to spark increased discussion of gender and reproductive rights across the world. The politics of gender and parenthood are continually evolving, and awareness of these battles and debates is particularly important in the disability community, as StaceyMilbern and KaraSwims have illustrated in their blogs.
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