The second kid isn't going to garner nearly as much attention.

Can someone please explain whether/how is it possible for this man to continue receving hormore therapy that allows him to continue being a man, while carrying a baby in his still-female womb and not jeopardizing the pregnancy?

Um...why should I care? There are actual really big problems out there right now (like the tanking economy). This woman gets thrown in the same pile as Sarah Palin.

gender is not a biological state, but a "deeply held belief" that one belongs to a particular gender. Otherwise, this post would have to read:

Bearded Lady Preggers Again

My understanding is that you have to stop taking T.

Either he has stopped the treatments during the pregnancy, or his doctor has determined that the hormone treatements aren't going to harm the child in any particular way.

What I might question is wheather he really is a pregnant man? I don't mean that to suggest that he isn't a man, because he was born a woman, but mearly to observe that he seems to happily occupy a third place genderwise where he is enjoying the biological processes of femalehood, while exhibiting (at least partially) the physical traits of malehood.

Perhaps we need a third non derogatory term for persons who occupy such a third gender.

Any suggestions?

I've never read Broadsheet before, so I'm not familiar with the tone here. But I clicked through from Salon's front page because I was disturbed by the headline.

Not by the contents of the headline, but by its snide tone, which was reflected in the post itself. "He's at it again"? "What will he do next?" This only confirms the sad lack of acceptance for transgendered people in this country, and makes Beattie's actions to gain further visibility (I don't think he would have had a camera at the OBGYN's office otherwise) all the more important.

This is a person who has chosen to have a child, not a circus freak, as the post seems to suggest. The fact that his biologically female body allows for this to happen is not, presumably, the object of scorn on these here "putting women at the center" pages. Rather, it is the very fact of "her" being a "him." Oh my, a pregnant MAN! This is not "snarky," but transphobic, offensive, and honestly sad.

Hope after the hoopla dies down, you might educate yourself about trans issues and the challenges transpeople face in this society in even the most basic aspects of their lives, like choosing to start a family.

Plenty of people have babies without going on Oprah. Even other trans people.

I know tons of parents who prefer to space their kids really closely, getting pregnant again with a speed that would make my head spin, because they want to have their desired number of kids as fast as possible and then be DONE. How much more so must this couple feel that way, since Thomas had to stop taking testosterone in order to be able to conceive and be pregnant?? It makes perfect sense that if they want 2 or 3 or however many children, they would want to have them as close together as possible so that they can be done, for all the same reasons normally-gendered couples are attracted to the idea of being done with childbearing: not having to deal with the biological hassles of pregnancy ever again, having your body back to do what you want with it, having 2 or more young ones growing up together at similar ages rather than having to start all over, and so on. And part of being done and having your body back, for Thomas, would be going back to the hormone therapy that makes him physically embody the man he is and always has been -- this is an absolutely, totally reasonable way to plan one's family!!

And also, WHO ASKED ANYONE?? Geez!

This whole situation reminds me of a bit from Monty Python...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBOQzSk14c

A previous poster said it best. People have babies all the time, even trans people. People forgo certain medical treatments all the time because they want to have babies and the treatments would interfere with ability to conceive/fetal health. People space (or attempt to space) their children's births close together all the time for a multitude of reasons.

Best wishes to the family, and here's to a happy, healthy pregnancy and happy, healthy baby!

There are people who identify as "third gender" or "intersex," and some use nongendered pronouns like "ze". To all those who insist on calling him a "bearded lady" or other derogatory terms that entirely miss the point, it's important to remember that the male/female dichotomy is a fiction, at least in terms of stating "every human is male or female." "Ambiguous genitalia" and chromosomal abnormalities are naturally occurring. People are the gender they identify with because gender is a social construct, and sex traits are by no means universal (is the woman born without a uterus not female?) This person chooses to identify male, though he has not undergone genital reassignment surgery. If society were more open, perhaps he would identify as something not male or female, but perhaps not. It is his prerogative.

It is also his prerogative to seek media attention for whatever reasons he wants. Perhaps he wishes to draw attention to transgenders now that homosexuality is more mainstream. Perhaps he likes to see himself on the cover of the Advocate. Perhaps both. It's his and his wife's business.

He can do whatever he wants, but I don't need to admire him or condone behavior I find cheap.

If you want to be left alone to live your own life then do it. Passers-by aren't going to think you're anything but a fat man in a big shirt unless you announce otherwise. The gynecologists office sometimes used the wrong pronoun? Really? HOW DARE THEY! its not like until that minute they had ALWAYS worked with women... Doctors had concerns about helping you get pregnant after a decade or so of testosterone? Proably reasonable. Get over it. Nobody was oppressing him, nobody was shunning his family, nobody cared until he made a fuss that got him famous.

From the crocodile tears in the first article that launched him to fame until far distant day he finally stops giving press releases he's pretty much, in my opinion the Paris Hilton of transgendered people.

Let him flash his cooch all he wants -- I'll roll my eyes forever and save my sympathy for transgendered and variously queer people who ARE in danger. There's plenty of them.