Oprah Winfrey: Pregnant Man Is A New Definition Of Diversity

In a collaboration with People Magazine, today Oprah Winfrey hosted Thomas Beatie, the world-famous “pregnant man”, showing her audience ultrasound video of the fetus growing inside him.

“It’s not a male or female desire to have a child. It’s a human desire,” a thinly bearded Thomas Beatie said. “I have a very stable male identity,” he added, saying that pregnancy neither defines him nor makes him feel feminine. Beatie, 34, who lives in Oregon, was born a woman but decided to become a man 10 years ago. He began taking testosterone treatments and had breast surgery to remove glands and flatten his chest.

“I opted not to do anything with my reproductive organs because I wanted to have a child one day,” he told the talk show host. Beatie’s wife Nancy said she inseminated him with a syringe using sperm purchased from a bank. Now, he said, his size 32 jeans are getting a bit tight and his shirts are a bit stretched.

Nancy, to whom he has been married for five years and who has two grown daughters by a previous marriage, also appeared on the show, saying the couple’s roles will not change once the baby is born. “He’s going to be the father and I’m going to be the mother,” she said. Their marriage is legal and he is recognized under state law as a man.

The doctor conducting the ultrasound pronounced the baby healthy and said Beatie’s was what he would call a “normal pregnancy.” Beatie stopped taking testosterone treatments about two years ago. Oprah called Beatie’s pregnancy “a new definition of what diversity means for everybody.”

Hopefully I’ll have a video clip by tomorrow.