As a child, nothing thrilled me more than the possibility that the movie “Splash” was a true story: A young boy is rescued from the ocean by an adolescent mermaid. Twenty-five years later, the boy grows up to be Tom Hanks, and the mermaid, adopting the name Madison from a street sign, comes to land to look for him, despite the fact that he can’t swim and cries after getting saved by girls. Long story short, Madison uses her fishy wiles to win Hanks’ heart, a secret government organization kidnaps Madison for testing purposes, Hanks rescues her, and the pair hop into the sea to live happily ever. I clearly did not have a good grasp on the parameters of reality, and much to my disappointment, the existence of mer-people has yet to be discovered.
This, however, is quite a sufficient consolation prize:
[photo: advocate.com]
A pregnant man à la “Junior”! Thomas Beatie, an Oregon man, is expecting a baby girl. According to his essay in The Advocate, Mr. Beatie was born a woman but decided to become a transgender male and legally changed his sex to male. He had his breasts surgically removed and started bimonthly testosterone injections, but kept his vagina. Identifying as male, Mr. Beatie legally married Nancy Beatie. The pair wanted a baby but Ms. Beatie is unable to carry a child, so they decided Mr. Beatie would do it. And the rest, as they say, is history.
