‘Pregnant Man’ Granted Right To Divorce Wife In Benchmark Decision

A transgender man who gave birth to three children was granted the right to divorce his wife of more than 10 years, according to a ruling handed down by an Arizona appeals court on Wednesday.

A panel of three at the Arizona Court of Appeals, rejecting a lower court’s previous decision unanimously decided that the divorce of Thomas Beatie can proceed as the marriage itself back in 2003 in Hawaii is considered legal in Arizona.

The court of appeals’ decided to overturn the previous ruling, made in March 2013, by a Maricopa County Family Court judge who blocked the divorce.

At the time, Judge Douglas Gerlach denied the divorce on the grounds that Beatie had not proved that he was a man when he got married 11 years ago. As such, it could not be proved that he and his wife were a heterosexual couple.

Beatie, aged 40, was born a woman but lived life as a man since his 20s following a number of hormone treatments and surgeries to change his gender. Beatie was permitted by law to change his birth certificate and other documents to reflect the fact he was a man.

The story of “The Beaties,” which made news headlines around the world, received world attention when he stopped having testosterone treatments and decided to have a baby because his wife was unable to conceive herself.

When he first became pregnant in 2008, Beatie was featured on talk shows across America and made a real name for himself as the “pregnant man” with the beard and baby bump. He gave birth to a girl in 2008, and then had two more children over the following two years.

Beatie filed for divorce from his wife in 2012, as he wanted to marry his new girlfriend. His attorney, David Michael Cantor, said that this is a benchmark case and goes way beyond just Thomas Beatie:

“People are going to have to get used to the fact that transgender people exist and they deserve the same rights and responsibilities that everyone else have. That includes the right to get married and the right to be divorced and the responsibilities that go along with all that.”