Trystan Reese, partner of Biff Chaplow, asks him out of the blue– “Hey, Biff, do you want to have a baby?” Reese is a transgender man and had prior exposure to the pregnancy of trans men having babies in a “healthy and responsibly way,” knowing that it was possible for him as well.
Biff had some concerns, of course, since he was worried about his partner’s safety as a pregnant man in a heteronormative world. At first, Biff was hesitant. Reese tells Parents, “I believe the words he used were ‘absolutely not, this is the dumbest idea you’ve ever had.’ Mostly he was worried for my safety… both medically and socially,”
Chaplow encountered an acceptance, even with the adoption of his niece and nephew in 2011, and Reese tells CNN, “Met with the best medical team we could find to find out if it was possible to do safely.” Reese had to cease taking his testosterone hormones and two months later into the process, he was pregnant.
“I was overjoyed and elated. A lightness came over me.”
During the process, Reese experienced what others had in pregnancy.
In the nine months Reese experiences, he gave birth to his son, Leo, in July 2017. It happened the “old-fashioned way. I’m really lucky, the people at Kaiser [Permanente] have worked really hard on their transcompetency. I received incredibly respectful, knowledgeable, competent care throughout my entire prenatal process,”
Reese had followed up on his journey of pregnancy through a series of videos on Facebook. He tells his social platform, “I think my body is awesome. I feel like it’s a gift to have been born with the body that I did.. both through hormones and through other body modifications.”
“I’m OK being a man who has a uterus and has the capacity and capability of carrying a baby. I don’t feel like it makes me any less of a man. I just happen to be a man who is able to carry a baby.”
It doesn’t bother Reese at all, even if 99.99 percent of people who give birth are women. He wanted to experience the beauty of having and birthing a child of their own, and he is doing something special while keeping boundaries with others.
He continues, “I understand that we are not a typical or traditional family. Just because something has always been one way, that doesn’t mean that’s the right way or the best way or even the way that serves the most number of people.”
“Look at our family and the love and respect that we have for each other. Continue to be open to thinking about all the different ways kids can come into this world and people can love each other.”
Replaced!