Pregnant Man?

          During the lecture last week, Professor Halberstam brought up the case that there was a "pregnant man" named Thomas Beatie. This "man" was born a woman and later in her life became a transgender male and had his breasts removed. He changed his name to Thomas on his birth certificate and other legal documents and he began to develop testosterone in order to grow body hair and increase muscle mass. In an interview that I watched about him and his family, it was very interesting to me to know that as a young adult he was a model and was constantly being told how what a pretty girl he was. He said that even though he was a very good looking girl and could have any man that he wanted, he never truly felt like he was a girl and he said that it was like he was putting on a costume every time he put makeup on and dressed up. He then established a lesbian relationship with a female bodybuilder and he then started dressing more like a man. When him and his girlfriend started getting closer, he decided to change his sex and have a surgery to take off his breasts which he said was the most liberating feeling in the world. He then became Thomas Beatie and married his wife. 

            Thomas decided that he did not want his female reproductive organs removed because he felt that removing his female organs did not make him any more of a man. He also refused to have an artificial penis made because of the same reason. He believes that people are not born "men" but grow to be "men" and he was just not born a man. Because his wife could not have children, Thomas then decided that he was going to be the carrier of their children. This brought up a lot of controversy within society because they saw a "man" that was pregnant and they did not believe that it was right. Many people felt like because Thomas still had female reproductive organs and was born a female that the couple were just two lesbians that were having a child. So was this a pregnant man or a pregnant female?