Think Pink Radio

I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that after he went on Oprah to talk about his pregnancy, Thomas Beatie would be in the news until well after he gives birth. He made the NY Times yesterday, and while I commend the giant paper for covering it fairly, it is a little irksome that they always wait a little bit for these underground stories. It’s not like their hip writers don’t know about shit when it happens, it’s just the editorial staff has to think of the broader audience. And as we all know, the broader audience sucks!

Anyway, he’s due in a few weeks and this, from the NY Times article, was surprisingly smart:

By bringing his story to the public and disclosing the particulars of his anatomical journey, Ms. Sedgwick added, Mr. Beatie is “making visible the fact that a lot of people’s experience of making these decisions isn’t about getting a penis or losing a penis.” For many transgender people, she said, “genital surgery is not what defines gender, and that will be news for lots and lots of Americans,” who may have trouble comprehending the idea that for some, anatomy does not define woman or man.

Good for them. The most interesting part about this whole thing has been how negatively the gay community has reacted: see the comments at this post on Towleroad and compare them to your most ignorant hosts on Fox news, and you won’t see much difference.