The Not-So-Curious Case of Scott Moore

His is not the first example of a transgender male pregnancy. But as this father-to-be has experienced, the phenomenon remains misunderstood among doctors and derided by some in the gay community.

By Emily Drabinski

SCOTT THOMAS MOORE XLRG (AMY MACWILLIAMSON) | ADVOCATE.COM

Though we had spoken over the phone and exchanged e-mails in the days leading up to our interview, Scott Moore sounds confused when I reach him at home on a recent Friday afternoon. “Now, where are you calling from again?” he asks. It’s easy to imagine why he might not be able to keep all the media calls straight. Not only is Moore 7½ months pregnant—something that could scramble any first-time parent’s brain—but the 20-year-old Northern California college student has just been anointed by the press as the world’s second pregnant man, causing an avalanche of attention from national and foreign media outlets. Earlier in the week a representative from a daytime talk show rang his doorbell and delivered a Mexican pizza, complete with a congratulatory note. “It is getting crazy around here!” he says.

What isn’t crazy to Moore and his husband, Thomas Moore, is the pregnancy itself. “Thomas Beatie is not the first, and we’re not the last,” he says plainly, referring to the media blitz over Beatie in 2008. “It’s not that uncommon, it’s just not talked about.” Helping to make trans male pregnancy an unremarkable occurrence was a factor in Moore’s decision to come out, which he did in a January interview with Closer, a U.K. women’s magazine, after he had posted a video about his experience on YouTube. “A lot of ground hasn’t been broken yet,” Moore says. “People’s eyes need to be opened.”

Moore has been opening eyes since he was just a child. Born biologically female (he asked that his birth name not be used), Moore knew he was different from an early age. “When I was very young, I didn’t even notice a difference between male and female,” he recalls. “But as soon as I hit puberty, I realized that I wasn’t going to be what I thought I was.” Moore came out to his parents as transgender at age 15, and after an initial bout of shock and confusion, they helped him begin his gender transition. He started taking testosterone, began using male pronouns, and changed his name. Soon his voice dropped and he grew facial hair. When he was 17 he underwent a double mastectomy and chest reconstruction surgery. Childbearing certainly wasn’t part of his life plan.

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Reader Comments

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Name: andy j.
Date posted: 4/17/2011 11:08:14 PM
Hometown: san diego

Comment:
I think if you disapprove of this, or if you think being "pregnant" invalidates Mr. Moore's manhood, you should keep it to yourself. This family faces enough challenges and bigotry from outside the LGBT community, they don't need extra backlash from within. I wish both expecting fathers the best of luck!
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Name: Jorge Acosta
Date posted: 4/6/2011 2:17:25 PM
Hometown: Hoboken, NJ

Comment:
Congratulations guys! The rest of us who don't understand can just chill... it does not matter that some of us don't understand. What matters is that these folks are bringing a child into a loving and stable home. It matters that they have done this in a medically and financially responsible way. It matters that they have managed to create a family and a home for themselves and their children.
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Name: Fred
Date posted: 3/21/2011 8:44:03 PM
Hometown: NYC

Comment:
While I wish them all the best, I have to admit I'm a bit confused by a trans man doing this. My understanding (Through my friendships and what I've been exposed to) is that transgendered people feel like they were born in the wrong gender. A FTM getting pregnant is a real contradiction to this idea.
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Name: Ianto Jones
Date posted: 3/15/2011 9:23:46 AM
Hometown: Portland, OR

Comment:
I'm doing my thesis on the effects of cross-gender hormone replacement therapy in adolescents before puberty. It's much more common than people realize. That aside, congrats to these two men. I'm happy that they have found a way to make a family. In a way, I'm a little jealous. They're able to have a biological child quite easily, whilst many of us have to pay upwards of $100,000 to have our own.
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Name: Kelly
Date posted: 3/12/2011 9:49:16 PM
Hometown: Biddeford

Comment:
I don't believe that when a FTM becomes pregnant we should embrace it. Transitioning from female to male is a serious decision. Everyone has the right to reproduce, but a FTM shouldn't carry a child IF a transition has begun. I can't imagine that all the hormones that were taken to help with transition are any good for the fetus, regardless of being stopped. The hormones have started to alter the person and as such, there is no research to say this is safe for the parent, or child. I don't doubt these men will be good parents... I just don't agree with how the baby is being carried.
Back to top Post a Comment Report Abuse
Name: Kat
Date posted: 3/6/2011 4:31:44 PM
Hometown: Chapel Hill

Comment:
It seems to me that a FTM person would want to embody anything and everything male after transitioning to male. Becomming pregnant and having a child is the ultimate female experience, which goes against wanting to be a man and be treated like a man. Granted, I'm a female and not transitioning or interested in doing so, but from talking with friends who have, they want nothing to do with anything female related while transitioning or afterwards. And vice versa with MTF....So I can definitely see how people are confused with this FTM actually wanting to become pregnant and making it happen, but as long as he and his partner are happy with the decision, live and let live....Everyone isn't going to understand the motives for everyone else, we should just try to support them as fellow members of our community....
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Name: Gant
Date posted: 2/19/2011 12:59:21 PM
Hometown: New York

Comment:
Why not? I came out as gay when I was 14 and began thinking of myself as a man who loved men. What is so different about knowing you are trans at 14 and acting in a proactive way towards transitioning? As long as he was responsible and had the support he required - and it seems he did - then it should pass the "smell test."
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Name: Adriene
Date posted: 1/28/2011 2:04:53 PM
Hometown: Crystal Falls, MI

Comment:
Congrats to you both!!
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Name: Wes
Date posted: 1/21/2011 6:52:06 PM
Hometown: CLT NC

Comment:
Started transgendering (taking testosterone and surgery) before coming of legal age? That does not pass the smell test.
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Name: Roz
Date posted: 11/7/2010 5:24:28 PM
Hometown: Santa Cruz

Comment:
Everybody deserves to be happy and the fact that these two people have found each other and have a loving family is all that matters and I am happy for them. Having said that I tend to agree with Lee Morse and others who wrote that the "mother to be is really not a man." I guess there is some category I haven't heard of yet but transgender doesn't really work for me. There is no point in claiming either gender when you get to the place of being a man in a woman's body who behaves like a woman in a man's body.

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