Pregnant 'man' Thomas Beatie and his wife Nancy have just give birth to a baby girl...not delivered by Caesarean section.
UpdateT he moral majority has shat a collective brick and Fred Phelps is fingerbanging picket signs as 'pregnant man' Thomas Beatie and his wife, Nancy, are now parents. The first legally recognized man has given birth to a kid. The world has now seen it all and the Spanish inquisition was caught by la migra, there's no turning this one around.
Thomas Beatie, 34, and his wife Nancy, are proud new parents. While reports are still coming in, Beatie did reportedly confirm that the baby was NOT born via Caesarean section. Other details are not available, but will be provided as information comes in...
The times, they are a'changin', and you had better believe that there will be media hoopla and religious-created societal fallout over this issue.
As many readers may be aware, Thomas Beatie (pictured with his wife on the right) is starting to cause a media ripple due his announcement of being the first person who has undergone gender reassignment surgery, has legal claims to be called a 'man' and is with child.
To go into a bit of background to this story and today's topic, Beatie was originally born as a woman named Tracy Lagondino. After feeling unsatisfied as a woman, Lagondino had gender reassignment surgery performed, became legally recognized as a dude and then decided to marry a woman. Due to his wife being unable to have a child, and since he didn't switch sex organs when 'switching genders', Beatie (Lagondino) decided and was able to undergo artificial insemination. Now in four weeks time, Thomas Beatie will be a legally recognized father who gave birth to his little girl.
Craziness? For today's age, and barring the movie Twins,
maybe just a bit. Beatie, however, doesn't think so.
In a recent interview, Beatie has this to say of the situation: "Despite the fact that my belly is growing with a new life inside me, I am stable and confident being the man that I am."
Pregnant dad Thomas Beatie continued, "I will be my daughter’s father, and Nancy will be her mother. We will be a family."
Oh oh, 'We will be a happy family." Those shall be the fighting words that ignite social debate, media spin and of course, the topic for this editorial.
Duude Look Like a Lad...oh wait, wtf?My first time hearing this story was from a very conservative Christian talk radio program I occasionally catch on the way home from work. Some of you may remember
my last altercation with these jackasses. You can only imagine they'd catch this story and crank up the rhetoric-machine early on this one. I'm re-quoting a segment as best I can...
Christian Guy 1: "It's an abomination! It's an abomination! End of days."
Christian Guy 2: "Cursed will be the children. You know the first time she unnaturally tried to have kids, they all died."
Christian Guy 1: You can only expect the same to happen this time. It's not right. It's not natural."
All the callers to the show basically agreed, vowed to fight against Beatie (whatever that entails) and it also seems they have my number blocked these days. The thing I found alarming, right off, is the furor these folks were expressing towards this 'abomination'. Granted, a reverse Steven Tyler's dude look like a lady popping out a kid can be tougher to keep down than shrooms and dirty tequila, but is it really cause to cheer miscarriages as a miracle? You be the judge...
Now the thing I find most interesting about this story is not necessarily the unique nature of the situation with the couple, but moreso the societal concern about the 'traditional family' that comes along with it.
As many of you are aware, gays recently won the right to get married in California. The biggest part of the 'gay marriage' debate has been that it will cause the downfall of the traditional family unit. As we all know, the divine plan cannot deviate from a hard-working dad, a mom at home wearing pearls with apron and two boys, one girl drinking their milk.
Sure, you can see the 'conservative' side of things. You know good and well that Beatie's kid/s are going to have a tough childhood. They'll get called names, watch videos of how their birth was picketed (you know Phelps is going to do something, along with others). You have to think about the psychological well-being of a kid raised in such a unique situation.
In my opinion, however, the bottom line comes down to this; will the children be raised in a family that can love and provide for them? If they answer is yes, then I don't give a fuck who you are, get out if you try to break that family apart.
There is no reason on this Earth to say a gay, same sex couple cannot necessarily raise a child just as well as a man and woman. Religious-logic does not equate societal truth. In this situation, sure, it's odd and new to have an almost tranny popping out a baby. There will be some hell to pay from society. But who's going to be raising that hell?
It sure won't be people with an open mind. It will be the bigots who are causing much of the problems in the world today as it is, due to their hate and wanting to fight all things different. It will be media assholes, Christian radio pundits, terror-hating war mongers and a guy named Skeeter at a Colorado bar who are causing the trouble.
Beatie expressed that when going in for checkups, some doctors refused to be of service or were generally assholes due to 'religious belief' or not approving of a gender-reassigned chick and a woman raising kid. Beatie's brother delivered a dose of open mocking after the first miscarriage.
"It's a good thing that [the miscarriage] happened. Who knows what kind of monster it would have been?"
Pure class.
My thoughts are that at the end of the day, sure, we should all be left to our own opinion. I really don't see why a dude would want to scrog a dude, but guess what, I don't give a damn enough about it to actively try to interfere with gay marriage or stop a dude/dude couple from raising a kid. Why?
That's how things needs to work. Just because a family unit does not resemble the house of June and Ward Cleaver, it does not mean it is bound for failure and hellfire.
In a world where our knowledge of genetics is quickly growing as the genome and soon proteome are unraveled and our mastery of our bodies increase, we've only seen the tip of the iceberg on what can happen that will challenge the traditional family unit. At one point in time, in-vitro was the rallying point for conservative society. "Test tube babies are the devil!" Now we have a legally recognized dad giving birth to a kid. Who knows what tomorrow may hold.
What I do know is that we need realize that no matter what our creed, belief or background, we have to accept that the knowledge of man can challenge and change what's been set forth by nature. Our ability to tinker and control our fate and life via manipulation of existing processes is the primary trademark of humanity. It's what we do. Sure, we have to limit our ability and question the morals of things.
One of the things we cannot question, in my opinion, is the possibility of a non-traditional couple having the right to raise a family, with children, without first looking at the merit, heart and ability of the prospective parents. Blocking their right to family due to unwarranted claims and bigotry is disgusting, and definitely should have less place in our world than the family of Thomas Beatie.