What the Pregnant Man didn't deliver

The pregnancy also points to the way that perspectives on gender are changing within the transgender community itself. An increasingly visible minority of transgendered people -- primarily in large urban centers -- are becoming comfortable living outside of either gender. " I definitely think there's been an increased visibility of that kind of fluidity," says Green. Some are using hormones without surgery, or surgery without hormones to create the body in which they feel most comfortable, or going by gender-neutral pronouns like "ze" and "zir."

For the vast majority of transgendered people, however, who are content to live their life "passing" in their new gender, there are far more pressing issues than a pregnant man -- like keeping their jobs. Last year, a heated debate about the inclusion of "gender identity" in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (a bill prohibiting job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation) created widespread rancor between some transgender and gay and lesbian activists. The bill eventually passed the house without a gender identity clause, but the transgender rights movement has had other successes in past years, often in smaller jurisdictions. In New York, for example, it's now legal for a transgendered person to change the gender on his or her birth certificate.

Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, resents the way that the Thomas Beatie flap has overshadowed more important developments. "The media hasn't gotten a message yet that they ought to get a life," she snaps. Last week, Congress held its first-ever hearing on discrimination against transgender employees, and on June 17, the American Medical Association passed a resolution stating that it "supports public and private health insurance coverage for treatment of gender identity disorder," but these items have received nowhere near Beatie's media attention.

While Beatie's profile has diminished in recent weeks, he has still managed to pop up in tabloid photos ("Pregnant man mows lawn at seven months"), and recently announced a planned memoir for St. Martin's Press (it has since been shelved). But the breadth of coverage from here on out probably depends on whether he agrees to publish baby photos. If he doesn't, and the pregnant man disappears from the world's headlines, what does the transgendered community take away from this brief phenomenon?

"The only positive thing that's come out of this is that the Beaties get to have a baby," Keisling says. "I don't see this as a cause for celebration among transgendered people," Halberstam concurs. In fact, she's worried that Beatie's publicity may have endangered people's abilities to access hormones or sexual reassignment surgery. His story may allow doctors to point to him as an example of why such surgery isn't even necessary or advisable. "I don't see how this helps anybody except to publicize that [people like Beatie] exist," says Halberstam.

Green, however, is slightly more enthusiastic, and believes the story will lead to some positive changes. For the time being, though, he thinks Beatie should stop focusing on the media and starting thinking about himself. "The best thing that Thomas Beatie can do for the trans community is live his life as honestly as he can, and worry about what his immediate neighbors think of him, and how successful he is in his local community." Green adds, "If people go back to accepting him as a man, that would be a big plus."