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Chase Minnema and James Brewer are learning that the first weeks of parenthood are equal parts exhaustion and wonder. In their Virginia home, the 26-year-old video processor and his 29-year-old partner are settling into life with their 6-week-old son, a baby they describe as happy, healthy and deeply loved. “Being parents is the best experience of our lives,” they told Newsweek. That sentence carries a weight Chase never expected to feel in exactly this way. As a teenager, he dreamed of having children, but he never imagined he would one day carry and give birth to his own child. Now, with a tiny son in their arms, he is living a future that once seemed out of reach. The couple’s joy is evident in the way they talk about late-night feedings, diaper changes and the quiet miracle of watching their son discover the world. For Chase, the experience is not only about becoming a parent but also about redefining what fatherhood can mean. His journey to this moment has been shaped by years of self-discovery, medical decisions, public scrutiny and, above all, love. At its core, their story is one of persistence: a trans man who refused to let fear or judgment stop him from embracing the family he always wanted, and a partner who loves him for exactly who he is. The world has not always been kind to that love, but in their home, the only thing that matters is the small, warm presence of the baby they already cannot imagine life without. Every morning brings another day of learning, another tiny milestone, another reminder that the family they have built is real, beautiful and entirely their own.
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Chase’s path to fatherhood began with confusion and courage. When he was 14, he first started questioning his gender identity. At first, he wondered if he might be a lesbian, or simply more masculine than the girls around him. But by 16, he realized something deeper was happening. “I felt different,” he said. “Then I realized I was supposed to be a man.” That realization set him on a path that included hormone therapy in August 2016, after he graduated from high school, and later top surgery. He acknowledges he was “super lucky” with his family. “Everyone was welcoming,” he said. While he largely avoided bullying in person, the internet was a different story. He encountered negativity online, and dating sometimes presented challenges because of his identity. “I am upfront about who I am,” he said. “It has created issues before as not everyone is OK with it.” James Brewer saw past all of that from the start. “It’s his heart that I care about,” Brewer said. “He is a person; I let him be himself.” That acceptance became the foundation of their relationship and, eventually, of the family they are building together. Chase had always envisioned children in his future, but he didn’t expect to have a biological child. “I always wanted kids. I didn’t think I’d have one naturally,” he said. “But it happened and I figured I still can, so why not have a biological child?” It was a question that changed everything. Instead of closing the door on fatherhood because it didn’t look the way he had imagined, Chase opened another door and walked through it with honesty, determination and love.
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For James, becoming a father was not just a hope—it was a lifelong dream. “Since I was a kid, I have always wanted to be a dad. I’d help my cousin with her children,” he said. “It’s a dream come true.” The couple met in September 2025 and began sharing parts of their story online after their son was born. They expected some support, and they received plenty. But they also faced criticism from strangers who questioned their identities and their parenting. “People judge our parenting based on our relationship,” Brewer said. “They say nasty things.” The judgment can be harsh and relentless, often coming from people who have never met them and know nothing about their lives. Yet the couple has learned to tune out the noise. “People are saying I am still a girl,” Minnema said. “I don’t really care what anyone says online. They are brave behind a screen.” Brewer agrees. “We laugh at the comments. I am glad we both have thick skin. I don’t pay attention to the comments.” He added, “I find it funny that they can speak about us but they don’t know us. You don’t know anything about us.” Their focus, they insist, remains on their son. “We are loving and caring parents,” Brewer said. “We are making sure he is OK 24/7. He is happy, loved, fed and washed, healthy.” In the face of online cruelty, they have chosen to protect their peace and to pour their energy into the tiny life depending on them. They understand that not everyone will understand their family, but they no longer need the approval of strangers to know they are doing the right thing.
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The medical reality of Chase’s pregnancy is something many people do not understand. Planned Parenthood explains that gender-affirming hormone therapy, including testosterone, is not a form of birth control. Trans men can still become pregnant while taking testosterone, even if their periods have stopped. Pregnancy is possible as long as a person has a uterus and ovaries and is ovulating, and ovulation can still occur even in the absence of regular periods. “The chances decrease with hormones, but it doesn’t completely stop,” Minnema said. “I stopped hormones for a while for personal reasons before getting pregnant, so that probably played into it.” He remained off hormone therapy throughout the pregnancy. Some people assume that being pregnant would be distressing for a transgender man, but Chase says the experience was overwhelmingly positive. “Being pregnant wasn’t the worst thing ever,” he said. “I had some moments of dysphoria occasionally, but it wasn’t horrible. It was a beautiful experience having my own child.” That perspective challenges simplistic narratives about trans bodies and parenthood. For Chase, pregnancy was not a contradiction of his identity but a deeply personal and meaningful chapter in his life. It allowed him to become a parent in a way he had never expected, and he embraced it with honesty and grace. The couple’s openness about their journey has helped educate others and offered visibility to trans people who might otherwise feel alone. They have shown that gender identity and the desire to have a child are not opposites, but simply parts of a larger human story.
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Research supports what Chase and James know from experience: trans people can be loving, capable parents. A 2022 study led by researchers at the University of Pavia in Italy, working alongside colleagues from San Diego State University, the University of Amsterdam and UCLA’s Williams Institute, analyzed data from 1,436 transgender and cisgender adults who took part in the U.S. Transgender Population Health Survey. The researchers found that transgender parents had similar health and well-being outcomes to cisgender parents and non-parents. The findings suggest that any challenges transgender parents face are more likely linked to stigma and discrimination than to their ability to parent. In other words, the difficulties they encounter often come from the outside—from a society that judges, misunderstands or rejects them—rather than from any deficiency in their parenting. Chase and James have seen this firsthand in the comments sections of their posts. They are judged by strangers who assume they know what a family should look like. But the research confirms what their daily lives demonstrate: love, stability and care matter far more than the gender identity of a parent. The couple is determined to provide their son with a childhood built on kindness, responsibility and acceptance. “We will teach him how to be responsible, nice to people, and an all-round good person,” Brewer said. Their vision of parenting is simple and universal: raise a child who is loved, safe and free to become himself.
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Looking ahead, the family may not be finished growing. Chase has considered bottom surgery, but he feels current medical options are not right for him at this stage. “We do want more children,” he said. “I’d be fine doing it biologically again.” For now, however, the new parents are focused on enjoying the first precious weeks with their baby boy. It is a dream both say they long imagined but never took for granted. They know their family does not fit neatly into other people’s expectations, and they have made peace with that. What matters, they say, is the life they are building together—a life filled with bottle warmings, middle-of-the-night feedings, and the overwhelming love that comes with holding your child for the first time. Their story is not a controversy or a debate; it is a family’s truth. In sharing it, Chase and James hope to show others that trans people can live full, joyful lives, including parenthood. They hope their son will grow up in a world more accepting than the one they sometimes face online. And they hope their love story will remind people that family is not defined by biology alone, but by the commitment to show up, day after day, and love without conditions. They have already learned to laugh at the hate, to hold each other close, and to focus on what truly matters. “Being parents is the best experience of our lives,” they said. With a 6-week-old son sleeping nearby, there is no doubt they mean it.
