A new era of parenthood
- Apr 14, 2008 - 1
I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle!—Alice, from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865).
Hold on to your seats. New Age goddess Oprah Winfrey had the guest of all guests on her syndicated television show last week. Thomas Beatie of Oregon announced that he is pregnant with child and Oprah declared that he will be the first man in history to deliver a baby.
Before your head explodes, though, here’s the real story you won’t get from the fawning national news media. Thomas Beatie is no man. He is a woman who has undergone transgender surgery and hormone treatment to become a man, or what “he” considers to be a man. (The pronouns are going to get confusing from this point forward, given that pronouns are a throwback to the unenlightened age when there were literal definitions of male and female.)
After what “he” (or is it she?) describes as a lifelong struggle as a man trapped in a woman’s body, she (or is it “he”?) has his (or is it her?) breasts removed but keeps his (or is it her?) female reproductive organs and the connected external parts.
“I feel it’s not a male or female desire to have a child. It’s a human need. I’m a person and I have the right to have a biological child,” Beatie told Oprah.
Is that clear? Read on.
Beatie also argues that the developing child is the product of a legitimate marriage. After “he” made the partial change to maleness, Beatie had his gender legally changed in Oregon to reflect his new outlook on life. Apparently a person can do that in Oregon.
Upon legally changing his gender, Beatie took a wife. Nancy is the legal wife in the relationship and Thomas, who was born Tracy and was once a Miss Teen Hawaii USA finalist, is the legal husband. Again, this is apparently sanctioned in Oregon.
News reports indicate the couple told Oprah that since Nancy, who is the mother of two daughters by a previous marriage, can no longer have children, they hit upon the idea of Thomas bearing a child. Of course, neither Nancy nor Thomas is biologically a male so they acquired, shall we say, a “donation” to help accomplish their goal. The Baptist Record being a family newspaper, that’s as far as we can go with the story of how Thomas was impregnated, but suffice to say that the pair laid out the whole sordid process in detail for Oprah’s national audience.
Thomas and Nancy are celebrities now and Thomas’ naked, bulging belly graces dozens if not hundreds of Internet sites. The national news media are eating up the story. Transgender groups are triumphal. We have entered a new era of parenthood.
“Thomas has been off testosterone for two years before even trying to conceive. His testosterone levels are normal. Some physical changes are permanent, but his hormone levels are normal. People ask, ‘Is the baby going to be normal?’ The baby is totally healthy,” Oregon ob/gyn specialist Kimberly James told Oprah.
Well, I suppose that’s a relief, since the baby is the only innocent in this perverse story. It’s not hard to imagine the future psychological and social implications for this child, though. Being born to a half-man/half-woman who serves as both your mother and father, and having another “mother” in the house to boot, can’t help but be mind-bending.
For the many people who are applauding Thomas Beatie, he is the new normal in America—in which case it seems fitting to end with another quote from Alice in Wonderland, this time from the Cheshire Cat: “We’re all mad here.”
It certainly seems so, doesn’t it?
This article is reprinted from the April 10, 2008, issue of The Baptist Record, the newspaper of the Mississippi Baptist Convention.
1 comments (post your own) feed
1 On Apr 15th, 2008, at 7:17am, Dreama wrote:
Lord, help us all & please most especially help this innocent child who did not ask or deserve to be brought into such a distorted world.
It’s called resposibility & accountability for an innocent life! A complete innocent is being thrown to the wolves here. Does no one care? God save the soul responsible!