When Dao Minh Khang halted his hormone therapy last year, little did he know he would quickly get pregnant and become Vietnam’s first transgender father. Khang’s pregnancy and the birth of his baby girl in May with his partner, a transgender woman, has made headlines in Vietnam, where it is rare for gay or transgender couples to have children despite broad LGBT+ acceptance. “My wife and I both want to have children. You don’t need to be a woman to give birth,” said Khang, 24, a model who was born a woman but identifies as a man. “Everybody seems to think trans people don’t think about having a family or the future. I want to show that the LGBT+ community are like anybody else,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. The baby’s birth has been celebrated by the transgender community and highlighted Vietnam’s position as one of the most progressive countries on LGBT+ rights in Asia, where many gay or transgender people are still persecuted and even jailed.