The media have been fixated on the story of Thomas Beatie, a man who “used to be a woman before undergoing gender reassignment surgery.” Beatie married a woman and is now six months pregnant.
Yesterday on Fox News, Bill O’Reilly — clearly disgusted — railed against the media’s coverage of Beatie, exclaiming, “[D]o you want a 13-year-old watching this kind of stuff and you’ve got to explain all this crazy stuff?” From his exchange with right-wing pundit Bernard Goldberg:
O’REILLY: Yes. It’s hard to keep track, Bernie. It is. Imagine a poor kid getting born into that family, going, hey —
GOLDBERG: That’s — that’s the real tragedy.
O’REILLY: Of course.
Watch it:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2008/04/oreillytranstrag4.320.240.flv]
There’s no evidence that the child born to Beatie and his wife will be psychologically damaged, as O’Reilly claims. According to a fact sheet by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry:
Current research shows that children with gay and lesbian parents do not differ from children with heterosexual parents in their emotional development or in their relationships with peers and adults. It is the quality of the parent/child relationship and not the parent’s sexual orientation that has an effect on a child’s development. Contrary to popular belief, children of lesbian, gay, or transgender parents:
* Are not more likely to be gay than children with heterosexual parents. * Are not more likely to be sexually abused. * Do not show differences in whether they think of themselves as male or female (gender identity). * Do not show differences in their male and female behaviors (gender role behavior).
Transcript:
O’REILLY: But if you’re a 13-year-old who’s watching — do you want a 13-year-old watching this kind of stuff and you’ve got to explain all this crazy stuff? Do you want that?
HALL: I’m more bothered by stuff that looks pretty darn pornographic. This looks like a medical oddity. I would say it’s not as bad as some other stuff.
O’REILLY: All right. Neither of you are upset about this?
GOLDBERG: Well, I don’t think it’s good. I think it’s one more example of how crummy television can be. And frankly, more than television: the whole culture. You know, a guy — she’s born a woman. She becomes a guy, but she still has ovaries and a womb. She marries some guy, and she has a baby.
O’REILLY: Married a girl.
GOLDBERG: Marries a girl.
O’REILLY: Yes. It’s hard to keep track, Bernie. It is. Imagine a poor kid getting born into that family, going, hey —
GOLDBERG: That’s — that’s the real tragedy.
O’REILLY: Of course.
Update:
Pam’s House Blend has more on MSNBC’s coverage of Beatie:
I keep thinking that Joe and Mika and Willie are reasonable tolerant, hip people — and then I see this morning’s show, where the pregnant trans man’s appearance on Oprah is used as grounds to cite this as “one of the reasons why 81% of Americans feel the country is headed in the wrong direction” (Joe); and “disgusting” (Mika) (!). Maybe by now, I shouldn’t be surprised by Joe and Mika showing astoundingly little empathy or compassion for our community, but it still gave me a morning “jolt,” especially on a day when Martin Luther King’s legacy was a major topic.