The media seems bizarrely obsessed with the story of "Thomas Beatie," aka Tracy Lagondino. Beatie, a woman who legally changed her sex to "male," retained all of her internal female organs at the same time she took testosterone, grew a beard and had breast removal surgery. She then "married" her lesbian partner, Nancy. Nancy proceeded to artificially inseminate her "husband." And so the press has announced that Thomas/Tracy (Thracy, let's call her) is the world's first "pregnant man."

If Thracy is a man, then so is Rosie O'Donnell. Thracy has two X chromosomes, a fully functioning set of female genitalia, and a uterus — and a voice higher than Alvin the Chipmunk's. She's a plain old lesbian who was weirdly fascinated with the idea of using a Schick Quattro on her face. Though Thracy's decision to artificially inseminate herself is the height of narcissism, it is hardly a medical anomaly.

But the Thracy story is told by the media as though it is a triumph of man over nature. "Thomas, 34, posed naked for our fascinating new pictures which show just how extraordinary this pregnancy is as he even SHAVES while resting his elbow on his baby bump," gasps News of the World. "Is the world ready for this?" asks Oprah.

Give me a break. The world has been ready for this since man started attending circuses. Thracy is no more than a glorified bearded lady, an Elephant Man for a new age. Only in this age, the circus freak isn't a victim — she's a self-promoting sleazebag willing to sell her soul and the soul of her baby for publicity. Thracy poses naked in the mass media. She writes op-eds on parental rights in The Advocate. She blabs about her joy over having a baby while ignoring the fact that her child will grow up in a home without a father and face the lifelong scrutiny of being the planet's leading sideshow experiment.

The media loves the Thracy story, however, because it allows them to exploit self-made monstrosity for profit while pretending to stand for toleration. Oprah shows us Thracy getting an ultrasound, then lectures us on Thracy's and Nancy's bravery. "Love makes a family," Oprah sighs. And refugees from Ripley's Believe It Or Not make ratings.

The media, then, has a tacit deal with Thracy: forward her political agenda, and in return, get the shots that will boost viewership. For Thracy is no innocent, "hounded" by the media, as Oprah describes her — she is a militant lesbian activist willing to use her body to undermine gender roles and promote sexual confusion. She is a propagandist of the first order. She plasters pictures of herself topless in her front yard, her self-butchered breasts over her pregnant belly, then claims victimization when receptionists look at her sideways. She appears on Oprah, then has the unremitting gall to claim that others are targeting her with cameras.

Thracy wrote in her dismally platitudinous, yet dramatically subversive piece in The Advocate, "our situation ultimately will ask everyone to embrace the gamut of human possibility and to define for themselves what is normal." The liberal, profit-driven press and the American court system have defined what's normal — and Thracy is the new normal. Thracy, and those like her, are not victims of a repressive society — they are purveyors of a rootless society, seeking to impose a worldview that labels mental illness an exercise in liberation and destroys the traditional, child-centric family in favor of a loosely-organized group of beings (male, female, or other) who see children as a right rather than a responsibility.

Thracy isn't the first pregnant man — she is only the latest lesbian spokesperson for radical amorality, festooned with the plumage of masculinity. Testosterone doesn't make a woman a man. And a bearded pregnant woman doesn't make wrong right, no matter what the media says.

Ben Shapiro, 23, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School. He is the author of the new book "Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House," as well as the national bestseller "Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth." To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

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