Does the “Pregnant Man” Redefine Dads?

Something’s not quite right …

I discuss this in detail on the www.savvydaddy.com site (or access the direct story link here). In any case, let me give you a teaser:

I’m sure I just opened up a can of worms, but with the recent publicity surrounding the photos of the infant daughter of the “pregnant man,” I couldn’t pass this up. Not only is this story so multi-faceted in regards to specific hot button issues, but it also made me think about my defined perception of fatherhood.

Thomas Beatie, 34, is a transgender male who first entered the world as a female named Tracy Langondino. Beatie, who once competed in a Miss Teen USA Pageant while he was a woman, made the decision as an adult to legally become a man. After taking testosterone treatments and surgically removing his breasts, Beatie began life as a man. However, the complexity of this whole story leans on the fact that Beatie decided to retain his female sexual reproductive organs. Later on in his new life as a transgender male, Beatie met his wife Nancy, 46, who already had two daughters from a previous relationship.

Although they wanted children together, Nancy already had a hysterectomy done before they had met. So, in a surprise twist, Beatie underwent artificial insemination, which led to the birth of their daughter in late June. With his appearance on Oprah while pregnant, the news of the baby’s birth, and now the release of his photos to People magazine, the publicity storm has become a full-fledged hurricane.

As a dad in the traditional sense of the word, what does this story mean to me? I’ll be honest, at first I thought the story was a complete gaffe and a plagiarism of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s forgettable movie, Junior. Part of me wondered if a journalist in Oregon got duped and was reporting on a guy who just wanted to get his five minutes of fame. Well, not only did Beatie get his five minutes of fame, but he also kicked the doors of convention.

Beatie wrote an essay a few months back for The Advocate, a gay and lesbian magazine, stating, “Our situation ultimately will ask everyone to embrace the gamut of human possibility and to define for themselves what is normal.” He also added that “Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire.”

I agree that I’ve always wanted kids, but never did I ever want to actually birth a child. I also had a desire to be a dad, but was under the idea that the difference between being a dad and a mom was based firmly on the fact that both have unique and distinguishable roles. Sure, you can blur the lines of who reads the bedtime stories, carries out the discipline or gives the bird and the bees talk. But can you blur the lines of who actually does the child birthing—which, last time I checked is the natural role of the mother? Or, how do you blur the lines of what differentiates a mother and a father in its most primitive form, when that which needs to be blurred defines who you are as a male and a female?

For the rest of the article, go visit SavvyDaddy.