Here is an image of something you don’t see every day: a father breastfeeding his miracle baby. And it’s causing the internet to go into minor meltdown.
The image, from a brilliant piece in Time, is by writer Jessi Hempel, who has written about his brother’s journey to fatherhood for the magazine. The father, Evan, who was born female, came out as transgender 16 years ago, changing his name and embarking on a long journey of physical transformation. But he always wanted to have a baby; he even paid his way through college by nannying triplets.
“I’d have no reason to tell you about this moment in my brother’s life were it not for the fact of his gender. Now that gay marriage is legal, the social battleground has shifted to new frontiers, frontiers that include the most private aspects of people’s lives. Transgender Americans have gained greater visibility and acceptance as stars like Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox have trained a pop-culture spotlight on trans issues.”
Evan stopped taking his testosterone, and with the help of a reproductive endocrinologist in Massachusetts had a successful pregnancy:
“Pregnancies like Evan’s—and the many that are likely to follow—will stretch our cultural perceptions of gender norms even further. Americans are just starting to open up to the idea that you may be born into a female body, but believe that you are really a man.”
The tweet and photo of Evan chest-feeding is getting mixed reactions online, however.
“My brother’s pregnancy and the making of a new American family” https://t.co/oWVBpUxFiq
— TIME.com (@TIME) September 2, 2016
A truly lovely article by @jessiwrites: My Brother’s Pregnancy & the Making of A New American Family https://t.co/Xf27sINvYu
— Natalie Brown (@NatSueB) September 3, 2016
I don’t care what anybody says. This is just gross.
My brother’s pregnancy and the making of a new American family https://t.co/surLMXEwgd
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) September 2, 2016
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