Transgender Couple Who Never Had Sex Change Claim to Be First to Give Birth to Own Baby
A transgender couple from Ecuador claims to be the first to give birth to their own baby, even though neither parent has undergone a sex change operation and both still have the same sex organs they were born with.
The Mirror reported that the birth of the baby took place in June following a natural pregnancy, as neither Fernando Machado nor his partner, Diane Rodriguez, who was born a man but identifies as a woman, has had sex reassignment surgery.
BBC News reports that Machado and Rodriguez are South America's most high-profile transgender couple, and have become popular on social media.
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"We don't have a name yet — or rather we do — we are just waiting to announce it," Rodriguez said in an interview with the BBC.
"Being a mother was never something I thought I would do because I am a transsexual," Rodriguez added.
The couple said the law in Ecuador requires someone who is born a man to undergo sex reassignment surgery in order to be considered a woman.
"We are the same as other families. Even though we might not have the same rights, we're the same," the couple said.
BBC reports that there have been several other so-called transgender pregnancies in the past, including Thomas Beatie of Arizona, who some claim to be the world's first pregnant transgender man, even though he is a biological female.
Numerous countries around the world, including 23 nations in Europe, require a person to undergo sterilization in order to be legally recognized as transgender.
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who has in the past met with Rodriguez, has criticized the promotion of transgenderism in society.
"That natural men and women don't exist, that biological sex does not determine man or woman, but 'social conditions' do, and that one has a right to choose if one is a man or a woman. Please! Come on! This won't live up even to a minor analysis!" Correa reportedly said back in 2013.
He said "These are not theories, but pure and simple ideologies."
"We respect them as persons," Correa added at the time. "But we don't share these barbarities."
The Ecuadorian president said that he is in favor of equal rights between men and women, but argued that is not the same as agreeing with "fundamentalisms that propose absurd things."
