I don't think anything of it, it is his business, and like most people in our society when his personal choices became something out of the norm it drew attention from the media and from other people. This is just an unfortunate fact of the American media. I don't see why it matters, just as much as I don't see why I should care that Tiger Woods cheated or that Chelsea Clinton is getting married. We really need something better to do with our lives than concentrate so much on other people's lives.
I also don't feel it set us back. It may be confusing to some people, it may make some people dislike us, to other people it may have made us seem more normal/human. In a community that promotes acceptance of ALL kinds of people it shocked me to see so many people actually react so negatively to Thomas's choices. We constantly further the reach of our identifying word "transgender" to be an umbrella covering so many different groups of people, yet when one person who actually fits the original definition of the word stepped out of the box society expects us to fit in everybody freaked out. Honestly we have probably set ourselves back more by continuing to change what groups and people are included in our movement than Thomas has or even could being one person.
My only other thought on his particular situation is that his family is amazing and wonderful. I've spoken on the phone with his wife, who took the time to return a phone call from a stranger asking about medical details regarding transmen and pregnancy. At the time I was considering rather or not I would be willing to undergo a pregnancy myself, she was kind, thoughtful, and helpful in every way. In the long run I've chosen not to take that path, but only because I chose not to have children at all, if I wanted children I would once again look into the idea of undergoing the pregnancy myself. Financially it would be the best and most realistic choice, do you have any idea what it costs to pay another person to carry a child? Do you understand the legal implications? What if they change their mind part way through the pregnancy? What keeps that woman from disappearing on you? Those aren't chances I'm willing to take personally.
If that all didn't really flow properly I apologize, I'm very tired but this is an issue I actually have put a lot of thought into personally so I wanted to take the time to respond before I went to bed (mostly because I would have forgotten this existed by tomorrow lol).
