Thomas Beatie, the transgendered pregnant man from The Advocate, was on Oprah telling what I feel is a beautiful and romantic story. Thomas became pregnant himself instead of his wife as she is unable to become pregnant for medical reasons. The more I watch and read about the couple the more I am drawn to admire their decisions. I hope that their story helps others who are struggling to come to terms with their sexuality and body image.
Watch Oprah’s promo on this story below, and for clips from the show check out Melissa McEwan’s coverage on Shakesville .
[youtube width="500" height="394"]http://youtube.com/watch?v=w-czVXh9woU[/youtube]
I don’t have much more to add to this story except to say that I am very happy for the couple and I wish them and their daughter the best. Hopefully them taking the brave steps to go public with their story will progress the dialog on equal rights for everyone. It should defiantly put into question our society’s shallow view of gender and sexuality.
Not surprisingly the mainstream media has been pretty quiet about all this, with the unfortunate exception of Fox News. Never one to approach a story with tact Fox ran it with this lead “A transsexual woman who has undergone reconstructive surgery and testosterone therapy, and who calls herself a “man,” claims to be five months pregnant with a baby girl.” There is so much wrong here but what’s most offensive is the fact that Fox understands their audience and this is written perfectly for them.
By contrast The Guardian, a UK based news outlet, ran the story the following day with “An American married man, who used to be a woman before having gender reassignment surgery, has sparked shock and disbelief after claiming to be five months pregnant with a baby girl.” Notice how much more respectful and unbiased that sounds? I guess its all in how you write for your target audience.
Please let me know what you all think on this story.