For those of you who don’t know, Thomas Beatie is a pregnant man.

It’s not as fantastical as it sounds. We’re not living in some wacky Children of Men-type scenario, and I’m pretty sure Thomas Beatie has never been to The Island. But he did used to be a woman, and as Oprah so tactfully phrased it, he still has his woman parts.

For the first time in my life, I actually say down and watched an entire episode of Oprah, and I wasn’t sorry. I mean, it wasn’t the sort of magical fierceness combined with outright trashy arrogance that the Tyra Banks show regularly spews, but Oprah is a master at handling difficult sitations with the utmost respect and tact, both of which she demonstrated in abundance for Thomas Beatie, who has been attacked in the press from all sides for coming forward with his story.

He and his wife went through nine doctors before they found one willing to handle his prenatal care. Nine! He’s been called a freakshow, a self-mutilator, psychologically deranged and worse, not just by the usual suspects of Fox News, but by so-called left-leaning news outlets like MSNBC as well as by members of the GLBT community itself. Most of the main GLBT organizations have refused to have anything to do with Beatie; in The Advocate Beatie writes that “Our situation sparks legal, political, and social unknowns. We have only begun experiencing opposition from people who are upset by our situation. Doctors have discriminated against us, turning us away due to their religious beliefs. Health care professionals have refused to call me by a male pronoun or recognize Nancy as my wife. Receptionists have laughed at us. Friends and family have been unsupportive; most of Nancy’s family doesn’t even know I’m transgender.”

The morning after Beatie’s episode of Oprah aired, Towleroad reported that the morning news team at MSNBC had this to say:

Like David Letterman, who called Beatie an “androgynous freak show” in his Top Ten the other night, the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe spent a few minutes expressing their nausea. Take a look at how Willie Geist, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough air their disgust about Oprah “legitimizing this” in this morning’s ‘News You Can’t Use’:

Says Scarborough: “I’m not gonna look at this. Tell me when it’s over. I’m not looking. We don’t want the facts. I can’t handle the facts.”

Says Brzezinski: “I don’t want to know the deal. I don’t want to hear. I’m gonna be sick. I’m gonna be sick. I am upset. That was not only stupid and useless, but quite frankly, disgusting.”

Brzezinski asked who the father is, and Scarborough responds: “The parrot at the pet shop…A former aide of Jim McGreevey. Are the McGreevey’s involved in this in any way?”

Then, of course, Fox News had to once again make sure it was the most offensive (and fair and balanced, clearly) news source around:

Fox News reacts to Thomas Beatie

This is so sad to me, that people actually think like this. I watched Beatie on Oprah and to be honest, he seemed like a really nice guy, his wife seemed like a nice lady, they seem like a devoted couple, and they seem like they’re going to be awesome parents. Beatie was clearly very nervous on the show and not as articulate as he is in writing (and Oprah’s leading questions didn’t really help that much…), but in the end I get why he went on Oprah. I’m sure part of it was to help him sell his book. But a bigger part seemed to be the Lance Effect–tell people the news your way before the media tells it THEIR way.

Anyway, I don’t understand why people, INCLUDING others in the GLBT community, even have a problem with this. There are some commenters on Towleroad who “really don’t like that the T is in LGB. I don’t think mutilating your body and loving people of the same sex, are the same thing.” The idea of that completely astounds me, that you could possibly be all for equal rights for gays and lesbians, but transgendered people can go fuck themselves? That’s a disgusting mentality to me, and I just. I’m getting very upset here.

As Thomas said on Oprah, being trans isn’t about sex, it’s about gender, and there is a huge difference between the two that a lot of people can’t seem to get past. Including, apparently, other members of the GLBT community. I have to wonder if this is the same group of people who were totally okay with ENDA being non-trans inclusive ie the HRC and so on. Because if so–if there is really a significant portion of the GLBT community that would rather NOT include the T–what does that say about the community as a whole? It says that we’re hypocrites who are perfectly willing to accept rights for some but not all. Perfectly willing to take advantage of GLB privledge and screw over the transgendered as long as we get our way.

This just makes me sick. If anything, Thomas Beatie coming forward is exposing just how prejudiced not just Americans are, but the GLB community is as well. Reproduction is not a straight right or a woman’s right or even a gay right, it’s a HUMAN right. The longer transgendered folks stay hidden and keep quiet, the longer it will be before society as a whole can even hope to understand and accept.

You know, I don’t understand what it’s like to be trans because I’m not trans and I’ve never felt the way a trans person feels. But that doesn’t mean I can’t empathize; that it’s even up to me to understand or make judgements. I believe in personal freedom above all: to be able to do with your own self and body what you choose to do, as long as you’re not hurting anyone else. To me, trans rights is the same and equally as important as the right to have an abortion, decriminalization of marijuana, and even assisted suicide. The only thing anyone truly owns is their body and their self, and of all the potentially destructive things a person can do to themselves, attempting to look physically the way they feel emotionally and mentally is on the complete opposite side of the scale–helpful, beneficial, not harmful.

And not a freakshow. Jesus. Plus, I’m going to have to boycott Letterman now.