Old-Fashioned Nature

Scorn nature at one's peril. 

But we do, nonetheless, push to achieve another kind of reality, one that confounds nature, but which expresses the sometimes bizarre reality that many of us wish to live and celebrate.  And could there possibly be anything more bizarre and strangely absurd than an individual born female, opting to become a transgendered male deciding despite having undergone both surgery and hormonal alterations (having kept the uterus intact) to become a mother?

Only Trevor MacDonald who decided to keep his uterus and not make genital alterations but did undergo surgery to remove his female breasts in favour of a more male chest appearance, decided to give birth to a child as a 'father', not as a decidedly more traditional 'mother'.  It's only a convention to him, after all.  And, as a father of a very young child, he wished to give his child all the advantages that nature offers to offspring of human beings.

He would breastfeed his son.  The La Leche League Canada group, committed to breastfeeding as a natural course that provides a baby and infant with a superior start in life, gave Mr. MacDonald invaluable assistance.  Teaching him the use of a supplemental feeding tube using donated breast milk.  As a former female having undergone a pregnancy as a male doing the normally impossible; bearing a child, he still produced a small amount of breast milk.

Not enough to suffice, not nearly.  So Mr. Macdonald breastfeeds from both his chest/breast, and through the medium of a long thin tube giving the baby donated breast milk.  Mr. MacDonald has had five years of being a male, having transitioned from female to male at age 22.  To allow himself to become pregnant with the aid of his partner, he temporarily halted his normal dosage of chemical testosterone.

"I overcame significant challenges in order to breastfeed", he explains, "and I believe that this background, combined with leader training, will enable me to effectively help others", he wrote in a letter to the La Leche League.  However, the response from the league was less than satisfying to Mr. MacDonald's expectations: "Policies do preclude men from becoming Leaders".

Mr. MacDonald has aspired to many things in his young life; wishing to turn from a woman into a man, and succeeding.  Determining that simply because he refused to continue life as a woman need not deflect him from becoming a father, and proceeding to do just that.  And then deciding that, having accomplished those milestones, nothing should deter him from becoming Leader of a breastfeeding support group for the La Leche League.

Except, of course, that the La Leche League feels otherwise.  Informing him that since he identifies as a father it would be "difficult to represent LLL philosophy".  For, according to the league, "A Leader needs to be able to help all women interested in breastfeeding.  Fathers are able to help in other ways."  A doubtless crushing disappointment.

Reasonably enough, they remind the father who managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible feat of a man giving birth to a child - other than that nature bestowed that gift upon him when it fashioned him originally as a woman - that "You acknowledge that some women may not be comfortable working with a male Leader."  Case closed?


As far as Mr. MacDonald is concerned this is all terribly tedious and old-fashioned.  There are no limits to what human beings can aspire to.  It's always been known that men - and women too, as well - can become asses if they are so inclined.  He just went one better, becoming a man from a woman, and then having his cake and eating it too.

Regarding mothering and fathering as two distinct concepts, according to Mr. MacDonald is "old fashioned".  For, as it happens, "A lot of people live in between on the gender spectrum and they parent in all kinds of ways."

Yes.  Indeed.