First man to have a baby

 

The case in Germany mirrors that of Thomas Beatie in the US, pictured, who has given birth to three children and was the first man to ever give birth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thomas Trace Beatie (born 1974)^[1] is a public speaker, author, and advocate for transgender and sexuality issues with a focus on trans fertility and reproductive rights.

Beatie, a trans man, had gender reassignment surgery in 2002 and became known as ‘The Pregnant Man’ after he became pregnant through artificial insemination in 2007. Beatie chose to become pregnant because his wife Nancy was infertile, doing so with cryogenic donated sperm.^[2][3]

Beatie’s first pregnancy resulted in an ectopic pregnancy with triplets, requiring emergency surgery and resulting in the loss of all three fetuses.^[4] Beatie has since given birth to three children.

The couple filed for divorce in 2012. The Beatie case is the first of its kind on record, where a documented legal male gave birth within a traditional marriage to a woman, and for the first time, a court challenged a marriage where the husband gave birth.

Family: Thomas Beatie was granted sole custody of his three children in May after footage emerged of his estranged wife Nancy being violent towards him.

Thomas Beatie at Stockholm Pride 2011
Born	Tracy Lehuanani LaGondino January 20, 1974 (age 40) Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Residence	Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Nationality	American
Spouse(s)	Nancy Beatie (2003–2012) (separated)
Partner(s)	Amber Nicholas
Website: http://www.DefineNormal.com

Early life

Born Tracy Lehuanani LaGondino, Thomas Beatie was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, the first of two children. His mother was from San Francisco, and of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh decent. His father, of Korean and Filipino decent, was born and raised in Hawaii.^[5] As a teenager, Beatie was a female model and Miss Teen Hawaii USA pageant finalist.^[6] He appeared regularly on the nationally televised aerobics workout series and video, Basic Training with Ada Janklowicz,^[7]and later became a competitive bodybuilder.^[8]

In 1996, Beatie graduated from the University of Hawaii with a bachelor’s degree in Health Science (Pre-med) and later pursued an Executive MBA. In 1997, he founded Define Normal, a progressive clothing company, which has since expanded in federal trademark to film and video production.^[9] He competed in full-contact fighting and was a black belt and tournament champion in Taekwondo.^[10][11]

Gender transition and marriage

At the age of 10, Beatie started to self-identify with the male gender.^[12] At 23 years old, he began testosterone hormone treatment to transition to living life as a man.

In March 2002, Beatie underwent sex reassignment surgery. The procedure he had, sometimes called “top surgery” or “chest reconstruction” involved a double mastectomy, areolar reshaping and grafting, and contouring of the chest to effectuate a male appearance. Because he wanted to have biological children and sterilization was not a requirement to undergo a valid sex change anywhere in the United States, he kept his internal reproductive organs intact.^[13] Prior to marriage, he officially changed his name through Hawaii’s Office of the Lieutenant Governor. He then went through the process of changing his name and sex marker from female to male on all of his state and federal documents, including his birth certificate, driver’s license, passport, and social security index.

Beatie married Nancy Gillespie in a legally valid opposite-sex marriage in Hawaii on February 5, 2003.^[14] The couple moved to Bend, Oregon in 2005, filed joint state and federal taxes and bought homes together as husband and wife. Beatie was also listed as “male” on his health and life insurance policies.^[15] As a man, he gave birth to all three of his children from 2008 to 2010.

In February 2012, Beatie elected to have “lower surgery” to further modify his body. His surgical journey, performed by transgender surgeon, Marci Bowers,^[16] was documented on his second appearance of Doctors, in 2012.^[17] The procedure, called a Ring Metoidioplasty, included transfer of tissue, elongation of the hormonally enlarged phallus, as well as urethral construction and lengthening to create a functioning penis.^[18] Beatie is also considering a hysterectomy.^[19]

Public profile

Beatie’s life became widely publicized after he wrote a first-person article in the national LGBT magazine, The Advocate, which described his unique situation and the medical discrimination he and his wife were facing. He wrote, “our situation sparks legal, political, and social unknowns… Doctors have discriminated against us, turning us away due to their religious beliefs.” The article was accompanied by a provocative photograph of Beatie shirtless, bearded, and pregnant.^[2] Within weeks of the online publication, news of his story quickly spread through national^[20][21] and international media.^[22] Countries across the world were speculating about and sensationalizing his unprecedented pregnancy.^[23] In the United States, he became an instant subject for talk shows and was satirized on late-night television, such as David Letterman,^[24] South Park‘s Eek a Penis!,^[25] and Saturday Night Live (Andy Samburg impersonated a pregnant Beatie.)^[26]

In April 2008, Beatie made his first television appearance, an hour-long exclusive interview, on the Oprah Winfrey Show.^[27] During the show, he talked about his sense of reproductive right to bear a child independent of his male gender identity. He commented, “I have a very stable male gender identity. I see pregnancy as a process, and it doesn’t define who I am. It’s not a male or female desire to want to have a child—it’s a human desire… I’m a person, and I have the right to have my own biological child.”^[28] The Oprah episode received a spike in Nielsen ratings.^[29] In the April 14, 2008, edition of People (magazine), Beatie was photographed byMary Ellen Mark for a six-page story.^[30][31] Beatie delivered his first child, Susan Juliette Beatie, on June 29, 2008, at the St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon. Multitudes of tabloids, magazines, and news sources continued reporting on the story after paparazzi captured images of the family leaving the hospital days later.^[32][33] People Magazine’s senior editor, Patrick Rogers, gave an interview to the CBS Early Morning Show about the birth.^[34] People Magazine’s August 4, 2008, edition featured Beatie with daughter, Susan, sharing the cover with President Barack Obama and family.^[35][36] The magazine has since reported on the Beatie family dozens of times.^[37]

On November 13, 2008, journalist Barbara Walters announced on The View that Thomas was expecting his second child, Austin Alexander Beatie.^[38] The next day, ABC aired a 20/20 Barbara Walters primetime interview (“Journey of a Pregnant Man”) with Thomas and Nancy Beatie.^[39][40] On June 9, 2009, Beatie gave birth to his second child, his first son, Austin Alexander Beatie.^[41] The couple’s third child, son, Jensen James Beatie was born to Thomas 13 and a half months later on July 25, 2010.^[14][42][43]

Guinness World Records 2010, named Beatie the “World’s First Married Man to Give Birth.”^[44] In a TV broadcast from Rome, Italy, Guinness World Recordspresented him with the title of “Unico Uomo Incinto al Mondo,” translated as “World’s First Pregnant Man.”^[45]

Other TV appearances for Beatie include Larry King Live with Larry King,^[46] The View,^[47] Good Morning America,^[48] Anderson Live with Anderson Cooper,^[49]Oprah: Where Are They Now?,^[50] and repeat features on The Doctors^[17][51] and Dr. Drew.^[52][53] Beatie has made personal appearances on over a dozen hit international TV talk shows in other countries such as Spain, Greece, Germany, Italy, Romania, Russia, Japan, Sweden, Poland, and the UK.^[10]

Beatie is also a keynote speaker at colleges and universities.^[54][55]

LGBT activism

In 2000-2001, Beatie was the co-chair and media chair for the Civil Unions-Civil Rights Movement in Honolulu, Hawaii, a non-profit LGBT organization for marriage equality. He helped organize and implement an island-wide, seven-day, 110-mile March for Equality.^[75][76][77] He also lobbied to pass the state’s first Hate Crimes Law^[78][79](which passed in June, 2001), and worked as an advisor for the city and county’s Chapter 19, an anti-bullying policy for the Board of Education.^[80]

In August 2011, he was the main opening speaker for Stockholm Pride, speaking to an audience of tens of thousands. He also spearheaded one-on-one discussions with doctors, politicians, and policy-makers in support of abolishing the sterilization law for Swedish transgender people.^[81][82][83] Sweden’s forced sterilization law fortrans people was successfully overturned on December 19, 2012.^[84]

Cultural impact

Beatie is one of a small but growing number of transgender people in the media. He has brought international and prime-time attention to issues of gender transitioning and gender expression. In addition, by Beatie’s giving birth as a fully documented male, he has challenged social and legal definitions of what constitutes being a man or a woman.^[85][86] People Magazine defines him as a pop culture icon in the magazine’s special edition “Pop Culture: 1000 Greatest Moments 1974 – 2011.”^[87] His legal case is also a precedent-setter for the ability of transgender people to exercise their constitutional right to reproduce and be recognized as his or her legal gender post sex-change transition.^[65]

Sculpture

In May 2010, London sculptor Marc Quinn unveiled a 10-foot marble statue of Beatie when he was pregnant with daughter Susan. Marc Quinn commented, “I think one of the main things to remember is that media attention and images are of their moment whereas Art is forever… that in 500 years time people will look at the beautiful marble sculpture of [Thomas] and have an emotional response and it will, I believe, somehow define something about our time.”^{[10] [88][89]}

Film

The documentary Pregnant Man (2008) documented the final weeks of Beatie’s pregnancy and the birth of Susan.^[90][91][92] The documentary was the highest rated show for Discovery Networks for 2008.^[93][94][95] The documentary continues to screen worldwide.^[96][97]