Transgender Man Makes History With Pregnancy News
A transgender couple (pictured above) is making headlines around the world this week after announcing a unique pregnancy, in which the daddy-to-be, a transgender man named Fernando Machado, is carrying the baby of his partner Diane Rodriguez, a transgender woman.
The soon-to-be parents, who live in Ecuador, announced on Facebook last week their upcoming “fetus fest,” which was held on Saturday and covered in local news; the next day they were featured as the cover story in the Mexico-based Spanish-language magazine Domingo El Universal, in a lengthy pieced called “My Boyfriend Is Pregnant.”
STORY: How a Transgender Man Gave Birth: ‘It Was Definitely a Surprise’
“What we want is to break myths and social prejudices with the subject of transsexuality,” Diane, 33, a longtime LGBT activist who was the first transgender candidate to run for Congress in Ecuador back in 2013, said in the interview. “There have been other pregnancies of transgender people in other countries [through] in-vitro fertilization or artificial insemination. I respect everyone’s decision to have sons or daughters, [but] in our case it was not necessary to resort to such alternatives as we are able to conceive biologically.”
Fernando and Diane on the cover of “Domingo El Universal.” (Photo: Facebook)
In other words, because Diane still has her pre-transgender male parts and Fernando, 22, still has a uterus, the two were able to conceive the old-fashioned way — just as Kentucky transgender couple Nick and Bianca Bowser did several years ago, landing them and their two children in the center of a similar media frenzy in October 2014.
STORY: Son, Then Daughter, Reveal They Are Transgender a Month Apart
Fernando and Diane are believed to represent the first transgender-couple pregnancy in South America.
Diane first announced Fernando’s pregnancy on Facebook in October. “I’m going to be a mom, my boyfriend Fernando Machado is pregnant with me,” she wrote (in Spanish, which was automatically translated to English). “After having spoken with my family, people who are very close to my life and social environment, I wish to make public one of the news that I think is the most important in my life and that of my partner, Fernando Machado. I understand that this is going to motivate…opinions in favor and against in Ecuador, as in Latin America. But as an activist and transsexual woman committed to a profound process of social [change]… I believe that the public should know about this wonderful news: Fernando Machado and Diane Rodriguez are going to be papa and mama.” She later shared a video of Fernando’s ultrasound.
Photo: Facebook
The couple reportedly met online in 2013 while Fernando was living in his native Venezuela, and Fernando moved to Ecuador to be with Diane shortly thereafter. Now, explained Diane in the Domingo interview, she and her partner will continue to mix their private and public lives in the name of activism.
“Our son or daughter… is the result of the struggle of activism, seeking rights that have been denied by social prejudice. Hence we have made progress in the recognition of our families,” she said (through online translation). “In that sense, I return to the idea that ‘the personal is political.’ The fight starts personally, [but] it has social impact. Obviously it is going to be something intimate — two [people] in [a] bedroom — [but also] something social, impacting not only on a person but a whole community, and society as a whole… How do I hide it? Our child will come to understand that as parents and activists, it will be our social obligation to expose our situation, so there is a rupture of prejudices.”
(Top photo: Facebook)
Please follow @YahooParenting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, andPinterest. Have an interesting story to share about your family? Email us at YParenting (at) Yahoo.com.
