[Ads-l] seahorse parent (2019)

[Barretts Mail]

1. 10 Jun 2022
"I’m a transgender dad. Here’s what people get wrong about me”
https://www.today.com/parents/essay/transgender-dad-people-get-wrong-rcna32620 <https://www.today.com/parents/essay/transgender-dad-people-get-wrong-rcna32620>

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As a person who is openly a “seahorse” dad (a term used when referring to transgender men who carry their own children; in nature, it is the male seahorse who carries babies),….
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I don’t see “seahorse parent”, “gestational parent”, or “birthing father” on the OED, Lexico, or Merriam-Webster website. 

Wiktionary has “birthing father” (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/birthing_father <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/birthing_father>) and gestational father (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gestational_father <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gestational_father>).

2. Wiktionary’s earliest citation (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Citations:gestational_father <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Citations:gestational_father>) is 1992. From the table of contents of the source (https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/cdozo14&div=82&id=&page= <https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/cdozo14&div=82&id=&page=>), “gestational” appears to refer to a social role or construction not a seahorseness. 

3. Wiktionary also has an interesting 2020 citation: 

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020, Bernard M. Dickens, "Transsexuality: Legal and ethical challenges", International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, Volume 151, Issue 1, October 2020, page 165:
He [Freddy McConnell] has publicized himself as a gestational father, for instance in a documentary film “Seahorse” (an upright-swimming fish, the male of which has a brood pouch for gestating its young).
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“Seahorse” (https://seahorsefilm.com/ <https://seahorsefilm.com/>) is a documentary that was released in 2019 (https://www.out.com/film/2019/4/28/how-and-why-trans-man-carried-and-gave-birth-his-own-child <https://vimeo.com/ondemand/seahorsefilm/>).

4. seahorse parent
6 Jan 2022
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/pregnant-man-gives-birth-after-25868516 <https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/pregnant-man-gives-birth-after-25868516>
Pregnant man gives birth after one night 'Grindr hook-up' and becomes 'seahorse parent’
Kate Buck

A man who fell pregnant from a one night Grindr hook-up is adjusting to life as a "seahorse parent" after welcoming a baby girl.

5. seahorse dad
11 Mar 2022
https://www.gayswithkids.com/the-being-blog/the-seahorse-dad-one-trans-dads-pregnancy-journey <https://www.gayswithkids.com/the-being-blog/the-seahorse-dad-one-trans-dads-pregnancy-journey>
Why Trans Dad Bennett Chose To Carry His Own Baby
Brit Smith

Ever since he became pregnant with their first son, Bennett has affectionately called himself the “seahorse dad.”

Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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