A transgender dad is defending his parenting style as online haters slam him for breastfeeding his child.
Tanius Posey was assigned female at birth and has been transitioning for the last six years. He went to the hospital near the end of 2021 because he didn’t feel well — and learned that he was three months pregnant.
As the 31-year-old told Truly, he “certainly did not see [his pregnancy] coming at all” and had to stop taking testosterone “cold turkey,” which he described as “hell.”
Another unpleasant thought was the idea of the public’s reaction to Posey breastfeeding his new son, Za’nius, who is now a year old.
But Posey ultimately decided to embrace and share his unique experience on TikTok, where fellow users deemed him a “seahorse dad” since male seahorses carry their babies. He now has a loyal following of over 929,200 people who have liked his videos more than 10 million times.
“I’ve got the parts to be able to [breastfeed],” he told Truly. “Just because I transitioned does not mean I stripped myself from wanting to give my child nutrients.”
“I’ve got it — why not utilize what I’ve got? My child has to eat. I can’t sit there and starve him. He’s gotta eat and he doesn’t take a bottle, so I’ve got to feed him,” he reasoned.
But not everybody sees it that way. Among the nasty online remarks people have aimed at Posey, one said that the youngster will become “corrupt” or otherwise unhealthy when he’s older.
“Somebody said he’s gonna resent me once he finds out that I carried him, and he’s gonna be so confused or whatnot because he doesn’t have a mom and dad,” Posey explained.
He also claimed that fellow members of the trans community have told him he’s “not trans enough because you carried your baby,” or “you’re making the rest of us look bad.”
“I got a lot of backlash; it got the best of me real bad [at first],” Posey admitted. “But I’m, like, maybe if I continue sharing I might be able to help the next individual.”
The hate won’t stop Posey from sharing his journey as a trans parent, telling the outlet that his response to the haters is, “We gotta stop living under a rock — we’ve gotta open up our eyes and realize there’s more than one way to live.
“We’ve got the parts; it does not make us any less of a man. We are still a man, regardless of how society feels about us,” Posey added. “Utilize the parts you got.”
Meanwhile, another trans dad from Seattle, who identifies as non-binary and queer, has been documenting how they “took advantage of the body organs I was born with” to give birth after a one-night stand during their medical transition.