Biff Chaplow and Trystan Reese have
expressed delight at experiencing what it's like to create a child and watch it
develop in the womb before welcoming it into the world. They did not have that
with their first two so they are happy to experience this "normal"
birth process, according to them.
The gay couple, who live in Portland, Oregon,
adopted Biff's niece and nephew, Hailey and Riley, after Biff's sister suffered
substance abuse problems in 2011. Though they loved being parents to the 6 and
9-year-olds, they always longed to have a baby of their own, so Trystan, who is
transgender, tried for a baby and he first managed to conceive in 2016 but they
suffered a miscarriage at six weeks.
They wanted to wait a year before trying again but because of the medical complications of Trystan
He said that some people think "trans people were born into the wrong bodies, and we really hate our bodies, and that’s why we need to transition. For me, just transitioning normally - taking testosterone so that I have a beard and my voice is deep as it's ever gonna get - and appear like a man… that’s enough for me. I never felt like I needed to change my body. And I for sure do not hate my body. I feel like my body is awesome, I feel like it’s a gift to have been born with the body that I did. So if you can start to understand that, then it starts to make more sense that it would not seem totally bizarre for me to want to create and carry a baby."
Biff also revealed in a podcast that both him and Trystan had been very cautious in the early stages of the pregnancy. Trystan weighed himself "obsessively" and kept taking repeated pregnancy tests. Just before the six-week test, Trystan called the doctor to tell them he was a trans-dad and worried about what the experience would be like. Trystan also revealed in the podcast that he would feel people looking at his face for signs and remnants of womanhood because of his pregnancy.
He said: "They kind of squint their eyes a little bit and I can tell they're trying to take away my beard, they're trying to de-transition me in their heads."
The couple said they have stopped
having those fears, which they noticed were unfounded. Their doctors are also
very positive that everything will go well while the couple are expecting that
the baby will be a boy and are already joking that it's "diagnosis
male".
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