My mother is a man.

The birth of a baby girl to a mother who is legally a man highlights the changing definition of the mother/father relationship in modern society.
Thomas Beatie kept female sex organs but underwent hormone treatment and chest surgery to become a man. He famously became pregnant in 2007 with photos of his belly circulating widely on the Internet and a popular TV talk show.
Perhaps because there have always been discussions and jokes about ‘if men became pregnant’ the story has really captured the world’s imagination.
Now, with the birth of his daughter, Beatie has fulfilled what he described as a gender-neutral desire to have a biological child.
While this may be a unique case of a ‘pregnant man’, it’s certainly not the first or only time a child has been conceived in unconventional circumstances. Like Thomas’ wife, many women cannot conceive naturally due to hysterectomies, problems from a previous ectopic pregnancy or caesarian or a host of other reasons. Like Thomas himself, many choose to become pregnant through artificial insemination or other means.
And like him, they often face problems receiving the medical help they desire due to a conflict with the doctor’s ethics or prejudices.
Same-sex couples are treated differently in different parts of the world, and their legal rights in relation to parenting are changing in many countries. When a gay or lesbian couple do decide to raise their own child, curiosity piques many person to ask who the ‘real’ (meaning biological) father or mother is.
One lesbian couple I know have no such qualms. Their child calls one of them ‘mum’ and calls the other one ‘dad’. Nonetheless, many parents who are gay find they need to assert that they are both the real mother or both the real father.





If they both feel real love for the child, who could argue with that?