Anglican Mainstream

From Telegraph.co.uk

Thomas Beatie, the transsexual man who made headlines after becoming pregnant, has given give birth to a baby girl today.

The birth at Bend, Oregon, was natural, according to a source, who discounted earlier reports that Mr Beatie planned to have a Caesarean section.

"She’s really cute, really pretty," the source told ABC News.

Mr Beatie, 34, was born a woman - Tracey Lagondino - but had his breasts surgically removed and began taking males hormones several years ago.

He legally changed his gender, grew a wispy beard and married a woman but retained his primary female sexual organs so he could one day get pregnant.

His wife, Nancy, with whom he ran a screenprinting business, had had a hysterectomy some years earlier.

Mr Beatie sparked an international furore in March after he announced he was pregnant. "I feel it’s not a male or female desire to have a child," he later told Oprah Winfrey on US televsion.

"It’s a human need. I’m a person and I have the right to have a biological child."

Before becoming pregnant, Mr Beatie stopped the testosterone injections he had been receiving for his sex change.

He and his wife bought donor vials from a cryogenic sperm bank and - following opposition from doctors - he was inseminated at home.

Doctors say Mr Beatie is not the first transgender man to give birth. Writing in March, he said: "I will be my daughter’s father and Nancy will be her mother. We will be a family."

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