A Lesbian and Her Fiancee, a Trans Woman, Wants a Biological Child

choi

Joanne Spataro, Long for a Baby with a Trans Partner. Ne2w York Times, Apr 25, 2018 (op-ed).
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/ ... y-preservation.html

My comment:
(a) The author, Joanne Spataro is a woman who is a lesbian. This part is easy. When it comes to a trans, I have learned from context that a trans woman is originally a man, that a trans man is originally a woman. A trans person may still have his genital organ (internal -- inside the abdomen -- and external), depending whether that person has taken the gender/sex-reassignment surgery.
(b) Her now fiancee is a trans ("I, a 32-year-old cisgender lesbian, and Lara, my 33-year-old trans fiancée"), But this article never states explicitly whether Lara is a trans man or a trans woman. This makes me read the article several times to ascertain Lara's gender/sex.
(c) Later in this article: "We got together in May 2015; last fall, she told me it was, essentially, now or never, as she wanted her transition to continue moving forward. By then, the thought of not being able to have my own biological child could make me tear up." So they met when Joanne was 29 and Lara (naturally not her birth name, which should have been masculine), 30.

(d)
(i) Joanne in her mid-twenties was happy with the idea of adoption: "I didn't even realize I wanted biological kids until my mid-20s. Before then, I'd vaguely imagined that children would simply come to me, à la Auntie Mame, or Diane Keaton in 'Baby Boom': I’d inherit them from a long-lost relative and simply slot them into my independent, modern life."
(A) Auntie Mame
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auntie_Mame
(a 1955 novel by American author Patrick Dennis)

This novel spawned a 1955 film, a 1966 Broadway musical, a 1974 film starring Lucille Ball as the title character.  The en.wikipedia.org has a page for each of the three.

Female given name Mamie (occasionally Mame) is a nickname for Mary or Margaret.
(B) Baby Boom (film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Boom_(film)
(1987)
(ii) But now she wants a biological child. So Lara is accommodating her by transitioning back to male, having a year ago started becoming a woman -- by injecting herself with estrogen (and probably medications to inhibit secretion and/or function of testosterone.
(iii) Lara
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lara_(name)
(section 2        Given name, section 2.1 Cultural origins: "In Russian and Ukrainian, the given name is a short form for Larissa" which is the name of a nymph in Greek mythology)

(e) The online version of the article help readers greatly.
(i) The summary of the article in the search return of www.nytimes.com says, "I'm a lesbian. My fiancée is a trans woman. We're trying to have a baby the old-fashioned way. It's complicated."
(ii) Click it and at the top of the article, beneath the name of the author but above the date, is an additional help: "Ms Spataro is a New York-based writer who is engaged to a transgender woman."

(f) Lastly, the bottom of the online version is an introduction to the author: "Joanne Spataro (@lookitsjoanne) is a humorist and writer working on a memoir."

Print has the same, but without "(@lookitsjoanne)."

humorist (n): "a person specializing in or noted for humor"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/humorist