Johnson runs the sonogram \u2014 the black and white shapes shifting on the screen in time with the sweeping of the wand \u2014 and tells his patient the baby has flipped around. The baby\u2019s head is down now, in the correct position for a smooth birth. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a normal timeline for the flip, 35 weeks into the pregnancy and several weeks out from the due date. It\u2019s also a sign, for Squire, that this birth is happening. Soon. <\/p>\n
Squire, 23, is trans. His pronouns are he\/they, meaning he\u2019s comfortable with both he\/him and they\/them pronouns, although he doesn\u2019t really care how people refer to him. He has not medically transitioned, so his uterus and ovaries are still functioning. That means Squire could become pregnant \u2014 and he did.<\/p>\n
Squire has been pregnant before. This time, when he found out, he thought about whether he should carry the pregnancy to term.<\/p>\n
There were reasons to think about alternatives, particularly financial reasons. He didn\u2019t have a permanent place to live and was homeless through his first trimester. The pregnancy was also unplanned, and the other parent is not in Squire\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
But Squire decided to have the baby boy and place him for adoption.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t go through losing another one,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like it would genuinely destroy me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Squire\u2019s story blurs ideological lines. He is a trans person who has decided to carry an unplanned pregnancy and pursue adoption. He doesn\u2019t fit neatly into a box.<\/p>\n
![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AIRWRG6ABZCWBCVPDCMEDN27G4.jpg\")
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Dr. Jeremy Johnson points to the sonogram during Jax Squire\u2019s 35-week checkup on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 at Faith Community Rural Health Clinic-Graham in Graham, TX. <\/p>\n
Juan Figueroa \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
Squire lives in a small town in rural Texas, a state where trans people have felt attacked<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gov. Greg Abbott has classified gender-affirming care for minors as \u201cchild abuse.\u201d<\/a> Texas lawmakers in 2023 banned gender-affirming care for minors. Two years later, legislators passed a bathroom ban that penalizes public agencies if they allow people to use bathrooms that differ from their birth sex. Texas state law now officially defines \u201cmale\u201d and \u201cfemale\u201d based on a person\u2019s reproductive system. After a 2025 state law, some Texas school districts no longer allow teachers to use a trans child\u2019s chosen name<\/a>.<\/p>\n While people who identify as trans make up less than 1%<\/a> of the U.S. adult population, they\u2019ve been the focus of national attention, too. In 2023, in response to state legislation across the country, the civil rights organization Human Rights Campaign declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since then, the second Trump administration has issued numerous orders impacting trans people<\/a>, including an order that recognizes two unchangeable sexes (\u201cmale\u201d and \u201cfemale\u201d) and an order that federally incarcerated transgender women be housed in men\u2019s prisons<\/a>.<\/p>\n The lawmakers pushing these policies would deny the identities of trans people, in favor of the black-and-white idea of biological males and biological females.<\/p>\n Squire isn\u2019t preoccupied by the attack against trans people. But he\u2019s aware of it.<\/p>\n It\u2019s part of the reason why, originally, Squire didn\u2019t want everything about his life to be out in the open. There were some things \u2014 like the adoption plans \u2014 that he didn\u2019t feel comfortable laying out on the stage of public scrutiny.<\/p>\n But he\u2019s thought about it. And he\u2019s changed his mind.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not gonna hide from it,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is my story. This is how it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n How he got here<\/p>\n It\u2019s been less than a year since Squire moved to Graham, Texas, a town of fewer than 9,000.<\/p>\n Graham is about 120 miles west and a little north of Dallas, or about 90 miles northwest of Fort Worth. The nearest hospital with a labor and delivery unit is in the city of Jacksboro, about a 30-minute drive away.<\/p>\n Squire moved here \u2014 to a new city in a new state \u2014 in pursuit of stable housing. He was struggling in North Carolina, where he grew up.<\/p>\n A friend in North Texas offered to let him move in. Short on other options, and hopeful the Texas plan would work out, Squire moved.<\/p>\n It was May 2025. Exactly one week later, he found out he was pregnant. It was days before he was planning to start taking testosterone, a plan that went on pause when he found out about the pregnancy.<\/p>\n Jax Squire poses for a photo on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 at his home in Graham, TX. <\/p>\n Juan Figueroa \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n Less than a month after the pregnancy discovery, Squire\u2019s housing fell through. He was homeless again. He stayed in a shelter in Graham for more than two months, sorting out his financial situation, saving money from his full-time job and coming to terms with the baby growing inside his uterus.<\/p>\n As the baby has grown, Squire has worked hard to reach stability. He saved up enough to get his own apartment, quit his second job so he\u2019d be less worn out and started regular medical care at the clinic in town. <\/p>\n The OB appointment<\/p>\n On a Monday afternoon in mid-December, his 35-week checkup takes place.<\/p>\n Sitting in the waiting room of the rural health clinic, Squire plays a shooting game, Hunting Sniper, on his phone. Sometimes, he says, he plays Monopoly. <\/p>\n The waiting room fills up; The clinic is busy today. Half the time of an OB appointment, Squire says, is just waiting for your turn.<\/p>\n A clinic staffer calls out Squire\u2019s name \u2014 they use his chosen name, Jax, but they also, in passing, use \u201cshe\/her\u201d pronouns. Squire doesn\u2019t correct them, doesn\u2019t miss a beat. He doesn\u2019t much care how people refer to him.<\/p>\n Dr. Jeremy Johnson prepares Jax Squire for an ultrasound during Squire\u2019s 35-week checkup on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 at Faith Community Rural Health Clinic-Graham in Graham, TX. <\/p>\n Juan Figueroa \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n Dr. Johnson said he has treated trans patients before, but Squire is the first trans pregnant patient he\u2019s had. Talking about Squire, Johnson uses he\/him pronouns. For Squire, that was a wonderful surprise. He\u2019s never had a doctor use his pronouns.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not the judge and jury on things,\u201d Johnson said, \u201cand I haven\u2019t walked in his shoes and I haven\u2019t gone through some of the prejudice that he\u2019s gone through.\u201d<\/p>\n Squire has, in many ways, been lucky to find Johnson as a doctor. To begin with, it can be hard to access pregnancy care at all<\/a> in rural parts of Texas. <\/p>\n A family physician who also practices obstetrics, Johnson said his practice doesn\u2019t prescribe hormones or help with gender transitions. He approaches all of his patients with compassion.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a faithful Christian. The biggest tenet of my faith is love, and that\u2019s part of the reason why I\u2019m a doctor,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI didn\u2019t get into this to try to make people feel alienated.\u201d<\/p>\n Just like with his other patients, Johnson talks to Squire like someone he knows. This is not a stranger. <\/p>\n A white board reads, \u201cIn His hand, is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind,\u201d as Jax Squire sits in the patient room for his 35-week checkup on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 at Faith Community Rural Health Clinic-Graham in Graham, TX. <\/p>\n Juan Figueroa \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n At the appointment, Johnson asks, briefly, about Squire\u2019s birth plan. He wants an epidural, right? \u201cHell yes.\u201d And he\u2019s still planning on no contact with the newborn baby, right?<\/p>\n Actually, Squire tells his doctor, he\u2019s changed his mind.<\/p>\n Squire has decided he wants the full 48 hours with the baby, allotted by the state. He\u2019s not afraid to bond anymore; he wants the skin-to-skin.<\/p>\n Johnson is surprised, at first, at the big change. But he\u2019s glad to hear it. He thinks it\u2019ll help the baby boy.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019ll be good,\u201d Johnson tells Squire. \u201cI think he\u2019ll always treasure that.\u201d<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Squire doesn\u2019t like to cry. \u201cDon\u2019t get emotional,\u201d he tells himself out loud, time and again.<\/p>\n There are topics \u2014 heavy ones, weighty ones \u2014 that Squire talks about without coming close to tears. Topics like his repeated homelessness, across the last five years.<\/p>\n And then there are topics that bring tears, despite his best efforts:<\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s reaction to Squire telling him that he would be doing skin-to-skin contact with the baby, a reversal from his previous decision.The thought of his dad, whom he looks up to as a role model.The fact that he\u2019s putting his son up for adoption, and his hopes for a better life for the baby.<\/p>\n The adoption is a big one. Squire wants it to be as open as possible. He wants contact with the baby boy, he wants to see him when he can.<\/p>\n \u201cI want him to know that I\u2019m not just giving him up, not just abandoning him,\u201d Squire says, \u201cbecause I felt abandoned for years.\u201d<\/p>\n Squire isn\u2019t in a financial position to raise his baby. He moved to Texas, about eight months ago, with $16 to his name. He\u2019s saved up, but babies are expensive. Squire wants his son to go to a home that can care for him well, in all ways.<\/p>\n \u201cI want him to be happy, and I want him to feel loved, cared about,\u201d Squire says. \u201cI want him to go on trips and have adventures and fall off his bike and scrape his knee up.\u201d<\/p>\n Even with his savings, Squire says, \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be enough to take care of him and to give him all of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n Finding beauty<\/p>\n It\u2019s late afternoon, out of the clinic and a little ways out of town. There\u2019s still some time before the sun sets.<\/p>\n Squire squats down in a patch of dead grass along the edge of a creek. He reaches into his backpack and pulls out a plastic container with a red lid.<\/p>\n Cracking the lid open, he peers at the soil inside.<\/p>\n \u201cHello, beautifuls,\u201d he croons. \u201cAre you still alive?\u201d<\/p>\n The pink-brown bodies of several worms wind through the soil. They wriggle, a little. Alive.<\/p>\n Jax Squire prepares his fishing line on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 at a creek outside of Graford, TX. <\/p>\n Juan Figueroa \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n Squire baits a hook with one of the worms and struggles to his feet, a more difficult task at 35 weeks pregnant. \u201cSorry, my butt\u2019s out,\u201d he laughs as he hikes his pants back up.<\/p>\n At the creek edge, he casts the fishing line out into the water. He\u2019s fished here once before, but he isn\u2019t sure what type of fish might bite.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t, actually, expect to catch anything. For Squire, that\u2019s not the point.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s how peaceful it is,\u201d he says. \u201cThe way the water moves.\u201d <\/p>\n As he talks, his voice is muffled by the sound of traffic trundling by on the overpass of Texas State Highway 16, a stone\u2019s throw away. A truck hauls by on one of the adjacent roads, closer, loud.<\/p>\n Squire doesn\u2019t seem to notice. He is reverent as he talks about the peacefulness.<\/p>\n There are birds, their songs and calls rising to the surface when the traffic quiets. (A cardinal, a titmouse, a wren.) There\u2019s the creek, circular ripples appearing where small fish disturb the water. There\u2019s a chill in the air and there\u2019s a fishing pole in Squire\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n Jax Squire fishes on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 at a creek outside of Graford, TX. <\/p>\n Juan Figueroa \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n This whole place is beautiful, in Squire\u2019s eyes. Driving to the fishing spot, Squire pointed out the low hills, and a canyon-like cut of stone near the road. Driving back, he takes out his phone for a picture of the last dregs of a sunset, pinky-orange and disappearing behind a hill.<\/p>\n \u201cWow,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s gorgeous.\u201d<\/p>\n He likes the Dairy Queen in town where, he says, you can eat ice cream and watch planes take off from the municipal airport.<\/p>\n These are things that could feel mundane. Jax sees the beauty, and it rocks him back on his heels.<\/p>\n A little less alone<\/p>\n During this pregnancy, Squire has felt alone.<\/p>\n He\u2019s never known anyone who was pregnant \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m the first pregnant person that I\u2019ve ever met,\u201d he said \u2014 let alone a trans pregnant person. (It\u2019s difficult to find data on pregnant trans and nonbinary people, although researchers and advocates say the visibility of trans pregnancy<\/a> is growing<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Squire\u2019s pregnancy has, in some ways, challenged his self-perception and made it harder to feel like himself.<\/p>\n His pregnancy has also led to some unwanted questioning by people who don\u2019t understand how he could be pregnant in the first place. <\/p>\n When people ask him that, Squire said, \u201cI just look at them and say, \u2018How did your wife get pregnant with your kid?\u2019 I still got all the parts of a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n It bothers him, this idea that he must be a woman because he\u2019s pregnant. He thinks that, if he\u2019d even read about a trans pregnant person, in a story like this one, it would\u2019ve made him feel less alone. <\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t a topic that\u2019s talked about,\u201d he said. \u201cA pregnant trans guy, are you kidding me?\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI feel like there\u2019s a lot of people who have to stay quiet about this kind of thing, and I don\u2019t want that. I don\u2019t want people to think that you have to stay quiet about it.\u201d<\/p>\n He hopes that people will read about his story. He hopes that some trans and non-binary people will see themselves in it. He hopes that someone, even just one person, will hear about him and feel a little less alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jax Squire leans back on the exam table, lifting up his shirt. The doctor pulls out a tube…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1562,5303,859,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-115435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-health-care","9":"tag-lgbt","10":"tag-public-health","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jax](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GFIYGZA7O5ETZAJPZ7UMNTL57M.jpg\")
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\u2018I want him to be happy\u2019<\/p>\n![\"Jax](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2ZVJKIZ7EZBINHE6OZEWBNBENE.jpg\")
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