When Thomas Beatie, a transsexual Oregon resident announced a pregnancy, reporters pounced on the topic with headlines like, “Pregnant man tells Oprah: It’s a miracle.”

Not quite. Beatie, born a woman, took testosterone treatments and got breast surgery but kept female reproductive organs, according to an April Reuters article. “So, this ‘pregnant man,’ Thomas Beatie?” wrote one blogger on mollygood.com, a celebrity gossip site. “Hate to burst everyone’s bubble and ruin all the press, but ‘he’ is actually still physically a woman. So, y’know, chill … Beatie has a womb and a menstrual cycle, people! Quit freaking out like he’s a seahorse.”

Beatie says the pregnancy raises questions for today’s culture. “Our situation sparks legal, political, and social unknowns,” Beatie recently wrote in the advocate.com, a lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender news site. “Is society ready for this pregnant husband?”

Beatie has already faced some response. “We have only begun experiencing opposition from people who are upset by our situation,” Beatie wrote in the advocate.com. “Doctors have discriminated against us, turning us away due to their religious beliefs. Health care professionals have refused to call me by a male pronoun or recognize Nancy as my wife. Receptionists have laughed at us. Friends and family have been unsupportive.”

A writer on the Latino pop culture Web site guanabee.com is supportive: “I think its awesome. I find it amazing and fascinating that people are willing to do so much (even to blur the line of gender identity) for the sake of love. Mr. Beatie is to be commended.”

A blogger on sacredscoop.com. disagreed: “What Beatie and other gay/transgender advocates are trying to do is blur the lines in hopes of pushing their agenda on the rest of the world. Their hope is to tear down traditional family values, and confuse the world into thinking different is normal.”

Does Beatie have an agenda? Why go public? And why decide to become a man but retain female reproductive organs? Beatie explained the motive and reason in the advocate.com:“I always wanted to have children. However, due to severe endometriosis 20 years ago, (my wife) had to undergo a hysterectomy and is unable to carry a child … our situation ultimately will ask everyone to embrace the gamut of human possibility and to define for themselves what is normal.”