How will the 妊娠している man's daughter thank him for this breathtakingly 冷笑的な - and profitable - foray into gay 権利s?

By Natalie Clarke for MailOnline
Updated: 09:10 BST, 24 May 2008

With an eight-month bump and a 耐えるd, he （人命などを）奪う，主張するs to be the world's first 妊娠している man. This week, the Mail paid Thomas Beatie a visit and discovered a tale of greed, gay 権利s zealotry and breathtaking cynicism.

Thomas and Nancy Beatie's neighbourhood might have taken inspiration from one of those shiny Fifties television 商業のs that used to advertise the American dream.

Everything is pristine and perfect and in dazzling Technicolor? -? from the paint finish on the 支持を得ようと努めるd-cladded houses to the luxuriantly verdant lawns.

This little 飛び領土 in the city of Bend, in Oregon, is untouched by the いっそう少なく salubrious 面s of modern life, such as overcrowding, 汚染, dirt and grime. It's so 静かな it's almost creepy.

Thomas Beatie was out in the 日光 earlier this week trimming his lawn in 前線 of his plum-coloured detached 所有物／資産／財産. It was an 逮捕（する）ing sight. A 34-year-old man with a wispy 耐えるd and baby bump covered by a T-shirt with the スローガン: 'Define Normal'.

Truly incredible: Thomas 陳列する，発揮するs baby bump

When the astonishing story of the 'world's first 妊娠している man' went around the globe two months ago, there was 憶測 that the pregnancy was a hoax.

But Beatie is inde ed 妊娠している, and his baby daughter is 予定 on July 3. The fact that he and his 45-year-old wife, Nancy, live in an area so very apple pie is one of the 推論する／理由s why many people thought this was a tasteless joke.

So to answer the question: how can a man be 妊娠している? 井戸／弁護士席, Beatie 現実に used to be a woman, then decided he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be a man, and then decided he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to have a baby.

When he had 外科 to become a man, he had his breasts 除去するd and was given testosterone to make him look and sound like a man, but he chose to keep his 女性（の） reproductive 組織／臓器s.

So Beatie is really a man/woman hybrid. Call him a freak, if you like.

によれば Thomas and Nancy, however, this is a story of two people in love who want to have a baby together. What could be more natural?

When I called upon the happy couple this week, Nancy peered around the door and whispered: 'This is all about a beautiful, healthy baby girl.'

But is that really so? In fact, this 悪意のある 実験 in male pregnancy looks very much like something else 完全に? -? a devastatingly 冷笑的な 行為／法令／行動する to 促進する gay 権利s.

And making lots of money その上. Beatie's little foray with his grass trimmer this week was a rare 遠出, on account of not wishing to jeopardise his lucrative 契約 with a picture 機関 by 存在 photographed by paparazzi (which conveniently happened when he was trimming the lawn? -? but served to stoke up public 利益／興味 in his story).

The blinds are drawn across every window of the house to stop anyone getting any sneaky dirtier pictures.

Nancy and Thomas 拒絶する／低下するd to be interviewed because, Nancy told me: 'We've got a 調書をとる／予約する coming out in September and we want to have stuff left to say so people buy the 調書をとる／予約する.'

Thomas 陳列する，発揮するs his bump while mowing the lawn earlier this week

The couple are also 契約d to People magazine and with Oprah Winfrey, though Nancy 主張するs they are not 存在 paid by Winfrey. (She did not give 詳細（に述べる）s of the を取り引きする People magazine.)

The 妊娠している dad was a neat 商売／仕事 idea, then. But what about the gay 権利s activism? Both Beatie and Nancy have a long history of militancy and led a （選挙などの）運動をする to make gay marriage 合法的な when they lived together in Hawaii before the move to Oregon two years ago.

Baby or political football?

Beatie's friends in Hawaii say he seemed perfectly happy 存在 in a lesbian 関係 with Nancy and never talked about 存在 混乱させるd about his gender. One has （刑事）被告 him of 存在 about to bring, not a baby, but a 'political football' into the world.

It seems strange that, knowing he 手配中の，お尋ね者 children, Beatie had a sex change 操作／手術. By the same 記念品, he says he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be a man, but didn't have 外科 to 除去する his 女性（の） 組織／臓器s.

その上の 証拠 of this couple's obsession with their sexuality is the 指名する of their 審査する-printing 商売／仕事? -? Define Normal.

井戸／弁護士席, in this 事例／患者, a child will be born of a bearded man and his lesbian wife from 寄贈者 sperm taken from goodness knows who, conceived in a DIY 操作／手術 at home using a 洗浄器／皮下注射／浣腸器 that vets use on animals.

Just how do you define that?

発表するing the happy news of his pregnancy in March in an article written for The 支持する, a lesbian, gay and transgender magazine, Beatie 結論するd: 'Our 状況／情勢 最終的に will ask everyone to embrace the gamut of human 可能性 and to define for themselves what is normal.'

And then this pronouncement on The Oprah Winfrey Show: 'I have a very stable male gender 身元. I see pregnancy as a 過程, and it doesn't define who I am.

'It's not a male or 女性（の） 願望（する） to want to have a child. It's a human 願望（する）. I'm a person, and I have the 権利 to have my own 生物学の child.' Says who, 正確に?

How lofty Beatie sounds, asking us to embrace this 勇敢に立ち向かう New World where men have babies. The funny thing? -? were it not so 悲劇の? -? is that he sees himself as enlightened.

It's doubtful his poor daughter will feel the same way. Playground taunts? If that's all it is, she'll be lucky. Who can know the emotional 重荷（を負わせる） she will be 軍隊d to carry?

'Don't bring a baby into this world to be a political football'

支援する in 2000, Thomas Beatie was a woman called Tracy Lagondino living in Honolulu. Tracy and her two brothers were raised in Hawaii by their father after their mother committed 自殺. No 疑問, this 悲劇の event 大いに 影響する／感情d young Tracy. < br />

She was a good-looking girl, albeit masculine in 外見 even then. She did some modelling in her teens and made it to the 決勝戦 of beauty 野外劇／豪華な行列 行方不明になる Hawaii Teen USA.

Beatie has said he did not feel as though he was born in the wrong 団体／死体, which is how those who have a sex change often 述べる themselves.

Tracy knew, however, that she was a lesbian but, afraid of the reaction of her family, 時代遅れの boys? -? having a three-year 関係 with her 戦争の arts 指導者? -? before entering into her first lesbian 関係 in her 早期に 20s.

In 1998, she met Nancy, who had been married with two daughters. Whether Nancy's husband was still on the scene is not （疑いを）晴らす. But soon the children were living with her and Tracy.

They became 井戸／弁護士席-known 選挙運動者s for gay marriage and other gay 権利s, and once walked through the streets carrying a 棺 耐えるing the 指名するs of 'hate 罪，犯罪' 犠牲者s 迫害するd for their sexuality.

In 2000, Tracy and Nancy, both 熱心な 団体／死体-建設業者s, 提起する／ポーズをとるd in their bikinis for a gay magazine called 長期冒険旅行.

Four years later they 提起する／ポーズをとるd again for the magazine. But by now Tracy had become Thomas Beatie, having had 外科 in 2002. (Beatie was his mother's maiden 指名する.)

Even Tracy/Thomas's gay friends were stunned at the news. Tracy hadn't told anyone and turned up one day to 発表する she'd had 外科, proudly showing her friends her 運動ing licence with the 指名する Thomas Beatie on it.

One friend, Hans Anderson, 解任するs: 'I was surprised because Tracy had always seemed so happy as a lesbian with her partner Nancy. But since she'd decided to take this 過激な step, I 自然に believed she'd had a 十分な sex change? -? everyone did.

'When news of the pregnancy broke, I was amazed. I'd no idea she was half and half. Now people are 説, 井戸／弁護士席, she can be a woman, then she can become a man, then she can go 支援する to 存在 a woman again when it 控訴s her.

'If y ou're going to have a baby, 罰金, but don't bring it into the world just to become a political football.'

によれば Beatie, after the 外科, he was 合法的に 宣言するd a man and was able to marry Nancy. 記録，記録的な／記録するs in Honolulu's 星／主役にする-公式発表 newspaper 明言する／公表する they married in 早期に 2003.

The couple moved to Bend in 2006. The city, once a logging town, is becoming popular の中で young professionals for its 親族 affordability and 素晴らしい scenery. Pine forests and nature 追跡するs abound, and there is skiing, 引き上げ（る）ing, white-water rafting and 激しく揺する-climbing 事実上 on the doorstep.

Bend's inhabitants are 保守的な, compared with the 自由主義のs who live in Portland. The Cascade mountain 範囲 that divides Portland and Bend is regarded by 地元のs as crossing between two very different types of people. Over the past few years, however, a small but 明白な number of Portland types have been making Bend their home.

Once they had settled into their spacious new house, Beatie and Nancy decided the time was 権利 to try for a baby. Beatie stopped taking his bi-月毎の testosterone 注射s and after about four months his periods started again.

It was looking 約束ing, but then Beatie discovered that not everyone supported his wish to have a baby.

'My brother said my babies would have been monsters'

The first doctor told Beatie to shave off his facial hair? -? one 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うs that wispy 耐えるd is ーするつもりであるd to be 挑発的な? -? and told the couple they must see the clinic's child psychologist to ascertain whether they were fit to bring a child into the world.

結局, the doctor told Beatie he and the 残り／休憩（する） of the staff felt uncomfortable? -? as surely most people would? -? with the 妊娠している man シナリオ.

The couple saw nine doctors before finding one who would agree to 成し遂げる 人工的な insemination. 早期に last year, Beatie became pr egnant with triplets, but he lost the babies after developing an ectopic pregnancy.

Beatie told Oprah Winfrey on her TV show: 'My brother said, it's a good thing that happened because they would have been monsters.'

But Beatie felt he was in the 権利 and persevered with his 最新の 原因（となる）. It was Nancy's idea to do a DIY insemination at home.

'I went to the vet because we have some birds at home,' Nancy told Oprah. 'I asked for a 洗浄器／皮下注射／浣腸器 without a needle. They gave us one and we got our コンテナ of sperm (from a sperm bank).'

Last October, Nancy inseminated her husband with the sperm. 'The 火刑／賭けるs were high and I was shaking,' she 解任するd.

It's not a nice image, 認めるd, but from it life did spring. Thomas was 妊娠している. For a while, the expectant dad and Nancy tried to keep it 静かな, with Beatie hiding his growing bump with baggy ジーンズs. 'Unfortunately, they don't make man-ternity 着せる／賦与するs,' he 発言／述べるd recently.

In March, he was five months 妊娠している, and it was becoming ますます difficult to explain his bulging stomach. People were starting to 星／主役にする. Was it a mighty beer belly? An explanation was called for.

So Beatie decided to make his 告示 in The 支持する magazine. Even at this point, he was still （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing his 井戸／弁護士席-worn 'gays are 差別するd against' 派手に宣伝する.

'I am transgender, 合法的に male, and 合法的に married to Nancy.

Unlike those in same- sex marriages, 国内の 共同s, or civil unions, Nancy and I are afforded all the 連邦の 権利s of marriage.'

He 影響する／感情d magnanimity in putting up with the bigotry of others. 'Healthcare professionals have 辞退するd to call me by a male pronoun or recognise Nancy as my wife.

'Receptionists have laughed at us. Friends and family have been unsupportive; most of Nancy's family doesn't even know I'm transgender. How does it feel to be a 妊娠している man? Incredible.

'にもかかわらず the fact that my belly is growing wi th a new life inside me, I am stable and 確信して 存在 the man that I am.

'In a technical sense, I see myself as my own surrogate, though my gender 身元 as male is constant.'

It's uncertain whether Thomas's pregnancy is a world first. It has been 報告（する）／憶測d that a 'trans-man' called Matt Rice gave birth to a boy in 1999, but it's 不明瞭な whether Rice had undergone 外科 to change sex from a woman.

At what cost does this emancipation of men come?

So what 役割 will Thomas play when the baby is born? -? mum or dad? 'I will be my daughter's father, and Nancy will be her mother,' he said.

A yellow-painted nursery is ready for the baby's arrival. Last month, Beatie had an ultrasound ざっと目を通す, which was filmed on American television. 'I can't believe it,' said Beatie. 'I can't believe she's inside me. We see her as our little 奇蹟.'

Beatie's pregnancy is 存在 監視するd by obstetrician Dr Kimberly James. 'People say, is this baby going to be 異常な or anything like that? This baby's 全く healthy. I consider it an 普通の／平均（する） pregnancy,' said Dr James.

But what about when she is born? Psychoanalysts have 表明するd 関心 that the child could be 深く，強烈に 混乱させるd over the question: 'Where am I from?'

実験（する）ing times 嘘（をつく） ahead. Beatie isn't 説 whether he will try for a natural birth or have a Caesarean section.

A その上の bizarre 新たな展開 to the story is that Nancy's grown-up daughters, Amber and Jen, appear to support the idea of their new sister 存在 born to their stepfather.

Both were in the audience for the Oprah show and Amber said: 'They're very much in love and they've been 役割 models for my husband and I.' 絶対.

The couple's 隣人s appear not to want to get 伴う／関わるd, with most 説 they had no comment to make. One man said they were 'a 広大な／多数の／重要な couple and good luck to them'.

But that is ありそうもない to be the preva iling 見解（をとる） of the 大部分は 保守的な 居住（者）s of Bend.

One 地元の I spoke to was 明白な. 'Is it a he or is it a she, what is it? It's sickening. I was brought up with a different 始める，決める of moral values and I just don't understand what is going on here.

'It is 存在 done for 完全に selfish 推論する／理由s to make some sort of point without any regard to the child they are bringing into the world どれでも.'

That's not how Thomas Beatie sees it. In his 見解（をとる）, he's 達成するd equality for gays on one more important 問題／発行する. Child-耐えるing is no longer the domain of women, it is now a man's entitlement, too. 'Love makes a family,' he says. 'And that's all that 事柄s.'

He must be very proud. But at what cost does this emancipation of men come?

One day, the daughter he is carrying might just tell him.