Letters to the Editor
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Sad day in America
This is the worst case of The Emporer's New Clothes yet. Beatie is NOT a man, as any biology text book will tell you, and no amount of legal status will change that. She and her partner are lesbians attempting to qualify their ambiguous sexual appetites by bringing a child into this world. This is wrong on too many levels to detail here. What is happening to this country?! To accuse decent Americans of intolerance simply for stating the obvious is irresponsible and dangerous. EVERY action, alternative lifestyle, or ideology does not HAVE to be accepted as gospel, nor SHOULD it. WAKE UP, AMERICA!
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Hatred vs. fear
Thank you, Rosenkavalier, Amity, J.C. Miller, Uberkitten and others. You’ve covered the points I’d like to have covered with more eloquence and composure than my anger permitted.
And while I can rationally understand that much of the invective hurled at me and my fellow trannies here and elsewhere is a result of fear, when people start throwing around words like “bizarre,” “fraud,” “not a man, but lesbians,” “sexual appetites,” “lifestyles,” and so on, and comparing my actions to incest (Parson Jim), the distinction between fear and hatred is an easy one to lose.
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professional standards
Stories (I remember from my journalism courses in college) should have "news value": impact, timeliness, prominence and/or proximity. This story has none of the above, except for a very small subset of people who are transgendered (non-surgically), but want biological children. In other words, it's really not worth reporting, but like so much "news", the "value" of this "story" is in its bizarreness (which, when you actually look at the facts, isn't even that bizarre).
So, why MSNBC (or anyone else for that matter) is "reporting" this "story" is beyond me in the first place. But then, the celebranchors defile their professional standards even further by injecting their personal feelings into the story. Yet again, our mediaratti forget the cardinal rule of journalism: the story isn't about you. Whatever one feels about this story personally, is personal. (Personally, I feel this is a non-story. I hope this couple enjoys their baby). Delivering news and analysis is not about one's personal "feelings" on a subject. It's about getting facts and information out to the public. And, reporters and news anchors are supposed to be objective: the consumers get decide how to feel.
Lastly, these so-called journalists then behave like middle schoolers about to dissect a frog in biology. "Ewwww, gross!" is not analysis, professional commentary, or news.
There is a crying need for good reporting and analysis in this country. The dumbing down of our news, the blending of entertainment and gossip with actual news, and the blurring of opinion with factual repotting has rotted our fourth estate from the inside out. Were I Queen of MSNBC, I'd fire the whole lot and start from scratch.
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Truly Disgusting
What's truly disgusting is the reaction by these so called newspeople. Don't they have the responsibility to relay information in our changing world without their moronic commentary? The answer is yes.
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Re: brynn
I take real offense for you calling me out as ‘hating’ transgender people. I don’t. I further think it’s perfectly acceptable for them to be parents. And the folks over at MSBC: idiots.
But the story, ‘man has baby’ makes no sense. Not even a little bit. Because that man was born a woman, and however we address and treat him now, you can’t change history or chromosomes. This is a NOT a news story.
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re: Anne in NYC
Because that man was born a woman, and however we address and treat him now, you can’t change history or chromosomes.
Interesting, isn’t it, that you call Thomas, “he.” Doesn’t this indicate a certain complexity in the topic that goes beyond “two and only two sexes and genders”?
I'll concede, you may not hate trans people in the conventional sense of the word. But your unwillingness to educate yourself even slightly on the topic before pontificating on it indicates, what, an intellectual laziness? A strong aversion to modifying rigid and unsophisticated notions of sex and gender? Or simply a selfish lack of concern for what is a very real and persecuted minority?
Others have already said this in the thread, but I’ll repeat it. Thomas Beatie is female; he is also a man. Had you made even the most minimal attempts at researching the topic, you’d know the difference between biological sex and gender identity, and would not be making smug statements like the one above.
As a female, Thomas is able to bear a child. Yet according to many here and in society at large, he shouldn’t. To protect your misguided and simplistic notions of sex and gender, he should either go childless his whole life or, at best, maybe adopt. He’s already endured being born with a masculine gender identity in a female body, grown up listening to all the insults and name-calling directed at trannies, possibly been rejected by friends and family when he revealed his identity, likely been forced out of at least one job for it, and risked and paid out-of-pocket for his top surgery. But that’s not enough. To make narrow-minded people comfortable, he’s also supposed to forego an experience that a significant number of biological males have admitted they’d do if they could, namely, bear a child.
As an FtM who thought being pregnant and mothering my daughter was the peak experience of my life, I’ll side with Thomas. I’ve endured the crap part of having a masculine identity in a female body, why should I have foregone the amazing experience of mothering just so you can preserve your ignorant and naive notions about sex and gender, which anyone with even a minimal foundation in biology knows are unfounded?
Trans people have existed throughout history and in every culture. In some, we were actually revered, the assumption being we possessed special knowledge that could help men and women understand one another better.
In this culture, we are mostly reviled. Another fact that you and others seem to have disregarded in your rush to add your judgments to those we trans folk have been hearing our whole lives. So you may take offense all you like, Anne in NYC, but your actions, whether or not you like it, are those of someone who—may not “hate”—but who is definitely prejudiced.