Thomas Beatie is a transgender, legally male and married to his wife Nancy in Oregon. Nancy unfortunately had to have a hysterectomy years ago but Thomas decided to keep his (her at the time) reproductive rights and now has become pregnant with child. The timing to start a family just seemed right. As Beatie aptly puts: "Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire."

So yes, a man is having a baby. Jump on this shit National Enquirer! Oh wait, Advocate beat you to it. Check it out!

I think this event raises a lot of interesting issues about sex and sexuality; not only, biologically and psychologically but socially as well.

While Beatie and his wife are entirely unconventional, I feel there is nothing wrong with the way in which they are choosing to have a baby. They are performing as a straight couple would, a male and female, wanting to start a family. Yes, they could have tried adoption (or have, and met too many obstacles) or surrogacy which is also quite expensive. But if you have all the equipment (ovaries, check; uterus, check; sperm bought from the local bank; check) then only fear of social resistances can stop you. As a woman who chose to live her life as a man, I believe Thomas Beatie has the bravery to face this too. Are those that are upset about this first upset because they believe that choosing to live a life other than that of the body in which you are born into is wrong? Believing that trans-genderness is immoral and that God makes no mistakes? Probably. Now that freak show wants to have a child??! He gets to have it both ways now, which pretty insulting to everything that has been normalized in us of how things are supposed to be. But I’m too liberal to be upset ;)

Is sex biological or psychological or purely societal?

Biology shows us that there are two sexes. Female and Male. Well not necessarily. While rare, intersexed or hermaphrodite people do exist; and in a degree that suggests this is not a biological abnormality but a biological variance. None of us are black and white, we’re all a little grey, and some of us don’t even know it. Meaning there are plenty of people who have the perfect male or female depiction on the outside but whose other sexual organs, internally, are more ambiguous. Furthermore it could not be until genetic testing for a completely unrelated health concern reveals to a ’female’ that ’she’ has an interesting amount of XY cells. Those are the more discrete cases, the ones that don’t make someone noticeably shudder. Deciding what makes a person intersexed is difficult, but I do know this, according to information posted on the Intersex Society of North America website, about 1 to 2 of every 1,000 births undergoes some form of surgery to ’normalize’ their genital appearance. So unless you are from a small town I have to believe most of you have met at least 1,000 people in your life. That odd looking girl who sat next to you in English class who had an inordinate amount of facial hair? There might have been a reason. Please read Anne Fausto-Sterling’s article titled The Seven Sexes… or better yet read an updated summary HERE.

My interest in intersexed people relates to Thomas Beatie b/c who is to say that he was already some part physiologically male before the sex change? Let’s demystify what it means to be male and be female. Please read this article on a trans-gendered female, only 6 years old.

I love the color pink. But do I love the color pink because I am a woman? Has my biology determined my mentality? Are they interconnected, interdependent, or perhaps malleable?! Do I love the color pink because I am a woman and have been taught to love pink? As well as horses, tulips and heels I guess. And when a guy wears a pink shirt, why do I find that attractive? Perhaps because he is comfortable enough with the whole spectrum of his sexuality? (Ahem, Polo collar poppers, I am not talking about you) At the same time I’m competitive, aggressive, ambitious, quick to anger and calculating. This could make me a worthy business opponent if I didn’t have the glass ceiling clunking down on my head, after all, I am a woman. Or perhaps this would make me the demonized Hillary Clinton. Do these characteristics make me more mentally MALE? So should I cut my hair short and ’perform’ more of a male role? Or can I still be assertive, while showing off my legs in a cute skirt and dancing around to Britney Spears in my living room? As you can see, I have more questions than answers, but through it all I still know who I am. Sex does not create identity.

Social constructs create ’SEX’ and what we define as normal and not-normal for a man or a woman. These standards change as society does, after all, women weren’t supposed to drive at one time, and obviously thinking on that matter has evolved. So why was ’SEX’ created at all? One word: power. (think about the driving thing again please…) ’SEX’ like race and socio-economic status are hierarchical structures in which one is favored over another. You’ve heard of rich white men ruling the world. So think of the following relationships and who ends out on top—

Men: Women               Rich: Poor                    White: Non-White

"Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior; she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male’s superiority." –Simone De Beauvoir (One of the smartest women ever, an absolute saint)

So why the hysteria over trans-gendered people? Because they violate the power structure. By being able to move between the sexes (if there is a between), they deviate what people have been teaching each other for thousands of years is simply the only way. This ’Man’ giving birth to a baby is a double offense and I love that. Not only could ’she’ choose to become a ’he’ but Thomas kept reproductive rights. So not only can he have all the benefits that come from being a man (inherent respect from other men for one) but also carry a new life. It smacks in the face of tradition and religion.

Is this a startling glimpse into our future? Where sperm can be frozen and chosen, with women co-existing in psychological male and female roles, pairing in which ever way they choose and making the male becomes physically obsolete? It sounds like science fiction and yet with Thomas Beatie it becomes closer to a science fact.

So Thomas Beatie, a former female and his wife are going to have a child. I know that the child is anticipated with happiness and will be immensely loved and that’s all I care about. After all who needs traditional parents when you have this fuck up from Texas placing his 2 month old in a microwave.