The Pregnant Man Grows Ever Larger in Buzz

by Molly McCall
Yesterday Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:30:51 PDT

On Thursday, Oprah introduced Oregon resident Thomas Beatie to anyone who hadn't yet heard of him. Beatie, a transgender man who is legally male, is six months pregnant with his and his wife's child. La Winfrey called the expectant situation "a new definition of what diversity means for everybody."

And everybody, it seems, is interested. Over the past seven days, searches for "pregnant man" rose 26,879%. Demand for "thomas beatie" grew more than 3,000%. Interest in "oregon man pregnant" has swelled 461%.

As for the skeptics who typed "man claims he is pregnant" and "pregnant man?" into Search, we can answer: Mr. Beatie retained his female reproductive organs. Because he has a uterus, he can get pregnant and carry a baby to term.

In Buzz, some of the most popular articles from the past week focused on the bun in Beatie's oven. As we posted earlier, Boing Boing and Huffington Post were two of the first sources to surface with articles on the story. Since then, the Huffington Post scored another hit with an item revealing more photos of the fertile daddy.

LilSugar, Yahoo! News, and People.com have also polled well with Buzz readers. The People.com article, which offers an exclusive video clip from the Oprah appearance, was one of the most voted-on articles in Buzz after the show aired.

So has this childbearing event really redefined what diversity means for everybody? The tale certainly seems to have people thinking about gender issues. We've noted a surge in queries for "transgendered" and "transgender pregnancy." Lookups for "pregnant man" have flowed in from every state in the U.S. and every age group.

With the fruitful papa about to enter his third trimester, we may have three more months of this baby buzz. Enjoy it!

-abilene