Zoe, I don’t mean to minimize the plight of the transgender population, or to imply that individuals with hermaphroditic traits do not face the same kinds of challenges and prejudices that the gay population is starting to finally overcome (in a few parts of the world) only lately. As far as my own professional opinion, I already have stepped across a few lines already in this board by branding George Bush with some Axis I and II mental disorder diagnoses in defiance of some rather strident policies to not do so (followed by most of my former colleagues), and I am enjoying retirement. My opinions were my own and mainly concerned the exploitation of this child by its’ parent to what I felt was the detriment of not only the child, but also the image of transgender individuals.

Frank Cajon - my apologies, no such implication was intended! // You raise a good point - giving birth must surely give rise to doubt as to the original diagnosis amongst medical professionals. // My own view, as someone who is TS/IS, differs - and note that my own view must necessarily be coloured by my own situation, and may not be adequately objective. OTOH it may contain insights not easily available to those “on the outside” as it were. // My own only chance of being a mother - or as close as I could get to it - was to be a biological father. Now that took technical help, I’m not just TS but IS, and missing some of the bits needed to do things in the conventional way. I could never have managed the “psychological gymnastics” for productive intercourse anyway. // There were two pillars that stopped me transitioning earlier. The first is my looks - I couldn’t “pass”, or at least, thought I couldn’t. Enough so I never cross-dressed or made the attempt, even in private, it would have been too distressing. The second was that maternity - or as close as I could get to it - was far more important to me than femininity. When my body started changing, it was obvious the first objection was removed. The second… well, the day my endo told me the change had sterilised me was the day SRS became inevitable, come Hell or High Water, no matter what it took. Had I not become sterile, I don’t honestly know what I would have done. Probably banked genetic material then had SRS. // Given that, I can honestly identify with Mr Beattie. Meta- and Phallo- are still pretty poor, costly, risky, and results of Meta are at best 2 inches. I had a very strongly female body image, but other women don’t. I can understand that some guys are in a similar situation. Better something that’s wrong that works, than something that’s only half-right and doesn’t. Given that, and the only chance of being a father - or as close as he could get to it - was to carry a child, his decision is not just rational but sensible. What is risky is going off HRT and having the hormonal wash accompanying pregnancy. He took serious risks with his sanity there. Not something to be considered lightly. Hormones at that level re-wire the brain, and you’re never quite the same person again. But you know all that. He did too, and went ahead anyway, just to be a father - or as close as was possible in his situation. // It can be argued that I, as a woman, have a skewed view of the situation. But in Kansas and other jurisdictions, I’d be viewed as a mutilated male. So either he’s a man and I’m a woman, or he’s a woman and I’m a man who would do exactly the same thing in that situation, thereby proving that “having a baby is not a female thing, it’s a human thing” as he says. Ok, there’s the possibility of his diagnosis as TS being wrong, and mine being right, but most of those objecting to the situation can’t see such subtleties existing, can they? // As for publicity, we have two choices - we can attempt to hide, and have no control over how our stories are presented should word get out. Or we can co-operate with the media circus, in the hope that they don’t treat us too badly in return. Remember, today’s headlines line tomorrow’s bird-cages, and by the time his daughter hits school, the fuss will be over. // Finally… see http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2008/05/year-three.html We’re not lesbian, but there are enough lesbian couples with children these days that my son has had no problems. We can hide amongst them. // Please feel free to contact me further, here or elsewhere, as I’d like to be educated about your views as a professional on the subject.

Zoe, thank you for your blog. In response to your implication that I am somehow part of an anti-Transgender society, I can only restate my position and clarify. I am a retired medical professional specializing in the treatment of individuals with psychiatric and psychological disorders. That does NOT mean that I or the medical community as a whole consider gender identity/transexuality to be a disease; it IS like many other complex phenomena involving both emotional and physical changes not to be taken lightly or done hastily. Unlike some of my former colleagues who I am certain are flat out opposed to gender reassignment surgery as dangerous, I think it is something that is certainly more appropriately done on a case by case basis after careful consideration of all of the facts, including the irreversibility of the surgery, effects of hormone therapy, and very real possibilities of suicide risk after an unsuccessful surgical procedure.
My problem with this woman (i.e. a human being with a uterus, vaginal canal, ovaries, and a baby in her womb) splashing her ‘male birth’ all over the world media is this: if she is so absolutely certain that she is a man trapped in woman’s body, and should therefore be qualified for sexual reassignment surgery, what is she doing giving birth to a child? Hey, like I said, I am not against transexuality, it is a very real phenomena, and it still is, barely, a free country: how about-have your baby if you like, but don’t make a circus act out of it that exposes you, your baby, and transexuals in general as ‘Jerry Springer’ level freaks? I think this kind of thing, posing for nude pictures, making talk show rounds, hiring press agents, has done transexuals much more harm in the long run than good, and the baby girl has been turned into a gimmick instead of a blessed event that should be treasured.

In reply to Frank Cajon’s cogent and well-written comment, I must respectfully disagree. There has been far too much “privacy and discretion” in the past, and the results for transsexual and intersexed people have been horrible. “privacy and discretion” in practice has often, not always, but often, been used as an excuse for ignorance and discrimination. For example, few know just how many TS and IS people there are. The textbooks usually just regurgitate a figure from Scandinavia in the 60’s - one in 30,000. The records of surgeries in the USA alone show it has to be at least ten times that. Almost no-one is aware that Intersexed people exist, let alone those with 5ARD or 17BHDD who experience to a greater or lesser degree an apparent natural sex change many years after being born. Yet 5ARD is 1 in 40,000 in the general population. // Consequently, we have judges making decisions based on ignorance of the medical facts. We have TS and IS people being refused treatment at emergency departments. We have TS people having a 75% unemployment rate in some districts, and a chance of being murdered 17 times the national average. // Experimentation on children born intersexed is routine, with doctors surgically assigning a gender shortly after birth, even though we know fully 25% of times, the patient’s actual gender differs from the doctors’ guess. In those cases, we label the patients “mentally ill” for not accepting mutilation and often castration when young. If they show symptoms young enough, we engage in “aversion” and “reparative” therapy, which causes extreme distress to the child, to coerce them into behaving as the opposite sex, the one they’ve been surgically altered to look like. // In 2005, 19 transmen who gave birth were the subject of an educational documentary, transparent http://www.transparentthemovie.com/ which no-one has heard of. We’ve tried to be private and discrete, and it’s gotten us nowhere. So time to raise our profile, because the tide of anti-gay-marriage legislation will sweep us away with it if a human and very public face isn’t given to the medical facts. // Mr Cajon, could you please give me a definition of “male” an “female” that is consistent and complete? One that covers everyone, and deals with such things as PMDS, CAIS, CAH, Kleinfelter, Turner, Mixed Gonadal Dysgenesis etc?

I am as liberal as anyone and as tolerant. I have worked with a transgender individual before and after surgery, and I think that sexual reassignment and all of that is fine for those people whose lives are conflicted enough that it makes then happy. In most cases, this type of surgery is only carried out after extensive psychotherapy to assure that it will benefit the person, whose life will be radically different after surgery. But in some cases, little real screening is done, or the Psychiatrist’s recommendations are ignored by get-rich surgeons and clinics in foreign countries. Who knows the facts in this case.
First of all, I am not going to call this person who delivered this child ‘him’. ‘She’ is a female or she would be biologically incapable of carrying a baby to term, I know this professionally. I personally think she is also extremely narcissistic to place her child’s birth in the midst of what is a sordid freak show. The privacy and discretion that are appropriate in such cases has been scrapped for sensationalism and this little girl will be fortunate if the parents do not continue to trade her future peace of mind for a sordid life as a victim of the 24/7 circus side show that has become popular culture.

Hello! I long ago learned about ambiguous males and females. When Christine became the “...only broad who went abroad to become a broad...”, we all had to adjust to human innovation and experimentation with the most sacred views of black and white. (That is another fake feature of humanity.)

The only certainty is ‘true’ or ‘not true’. And we do not always know truth from non-truth. Nothing is too incredible to be true, but too credible to be not true. The language of God is the thing itself.

Part of the problem is confusion between sex and gender.  The sex of an individual is their genitals. Thomas Beatie was born with female genitals, the sex is female.  She was not born with mixed genitals, but was a biological female.  Anatomically she was a normal girl.  Now gender is how we identify (the mental part) and by those accounts Thomas always felt like a male.  This is not really that uncommon, and not really a shocker these days.  She altered her identity when she got older and became a he, in terms of gender.  However she was still a she in terms of sex.  He then got pregnant and then started promoting himself like some miracle of science, no doubt there are book plans in the works.  The press just loved this story because of its gender confusion.  The reality is that its just another pregnancy, it just happens to be to a woman who identifies as a he.  I highly doubt this is really the first time that has happened, just the first time Oprah did a story about it.  I doubt the child will be hurt by the gender confusion, kids not having all the social conditioning adjust easily to unusual families, if they are loved they will thrive.  I am personally more concerned by how self-serving this couple seems to be, but self-serving parents are a dime a dozen.

Wow!  The most amazing part of this whole thing is that Cyrena and I agree on something.

The world must be coming to an end.

Well..this is the first I’m hearing of this. (Probably because I don’t watch Oprah/read the tabloids..one and the same). On the other hand, I’m surprised that the MSM didn’t cover this, like making sure that we knew that the serial killer ‘serpent’ was engaged to marry. (another serial killer maybe?)

Anyway, all I can say is...HOLY SHIT, and God Bless the child. This is even MORE irresponsible than having a child that one has no possible means of caring for, financially or otherwise.

If either of them really wanted to be parents, there are several million children already in need of some. So...like so much of the rest of the 21st Century US population, this is really all about him/her and nothing else.

Wanna be a man instead of a woman? Fine. Wanna be a woman instead of a man? That’s fine too. Bring a kid into the mix? That’s fucked-up.

Guess there IS a ‘line’ to my ‘liberalness’.