For Father's Day, NPR spoke to three, gay sgle fathers who ma the choice to bee parents via surrogacy.
Contents:
- MOVG PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERS WH THEIR FAI ACROSS AMERI
- THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS
- GROWG UP WH A GAY FATHER – CONFSNS OM A STRAIGHT SON
- HOW I ACCINTALLY FOUND OUT MY DAD IS GAY
- GAY DADS AND STIGMAS
- IS YOUR DAD GAY—OR ARE YOU A GAY DAD?
- ‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD
- GAY FATHERS WHO COME OUT MID-LIFE
MOVG PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERS WH THEIR FAI ACROSS AMERI
Photographer Bart Heynen set out across the untry to make a visual archive of gay fatherhood "Dads." * gay fathers *
Such a photograph would have been extraordarily rare jt s ago, but now is one of many published the book “Dads, ” a four-year visual archive of gay fatherhood across Ameri that began 2016. “I felt a ltle b lonely as a gay dad – although there are two of – but lonely the sense that all the other fai I knew were straight parents, ” Heynen said a vio ll, explag why he began photographg the seri. “I also thought was important for (my kids) to see other fai wh gay dads.
“For many people, the book will be an troductn to gay fatherhood. For Heynen, they reprent addnal love and re and help illtrate some of the cisn-makg that, though not exclive to them, all gay fathers mt ntend wh. “Most of the women are Mormon, and Mormons don’t believe gay marriage and gays havg kids.
THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS
* gay fathers *
Heynen, as well as the fathers he photographed, hope that the photographs “Dads” will dispel some of the hurtful stereotyp that still lger around gay fatherhood. Abplanalp never knew when he was younger that fatherhood would be possible for him as gay man.
Listen: “Daddy Squared: The Gay Dads Podst” (2019-ongog).
Hosted by Wt Hollywood uple Yan and Alex, the dads e each episo to chat parentg and relatnships, and lately have been focg each episo on the gay rights and fatherhood pathways by untry, and vg a gay father om each lotn on as a gut. Patrick, who played a terracial gay uple who eventually marry and adopt two children. This YA g-of-age novel follows high schooler Sal, who was adopted to a lovg Mexin Amerin fay by his gay father, when he begs to qutn his inty and place the world durg his senr year.
GROWG UP WH A GAY FATHER – CONFSNS OM A STRAIGHT SON
Growg up wh a gay father created challeng for both my Dad & I. His journey out of the Bible Belt & closet was not easy. Most importantly though . . . * gay fathers *
This one-hour documentary followed the fay liv of four gay fai and the legal and cultural hurdl the men faced to bee fathers. The director and producer is Johnny Symons, himself a gay father of an adopted son wh his partner the Bay Area.
Savage beme an ternatnally regnized sex lumnist and activist the 1990s and ’00s for his ank cultural sight to gay relatnships and inty.
NPR spoke to three men, sgle gay fathers, who chose to bee dads via surrogacy, after years of g to terms wh their inti, their fai, and the technologil advanc that have ma journeys like this possible.
HOW I ACCINTALLY FOUND OUT MY DAD IS GAY
Give a big Father's Day hug to Ricky Mart, Neil Patrick Harris, and Anrson Cooper — as well as the rt of our hight-profile gay dads. * gay fathers *
"At that pot 1994, you didn't see many gays [on] the mp. So I realized I was gay, but I was like sred, nfed.
But the procs for sgle people, particularly relatively olr gay men, he says, was difficult. Black, gay and heavyset the South, he was raised by a sgle mother a fay of sgle mothers.
DUSTIN LING "Sometim the gay muny is seen as, oh, 's the funny guy who's always about fashn or always about travel, " says Dt Lg. "Fathers – gay fathers and mothers – e different and var forms, not jt that one-note inty.
GAY DADS AND STIGMAS
" Raised on the island natn of Aba to Asian parents, Lg says there weren't many exampl of gay men around. Dpe the challeng of life as a sgle gay dad New York, Lg remas an optimist.
But I knew he was gay by the time I was 7 or 8.
So this is my story of growg up wh a gay father. Growg up wh a gay father, particularly one who was aaid to e out, prented challeng our abily to get emotnally close. I don’t rell a time when I didn’t know my Dad was gay.
IS YOUR DAD GAY—OR ARE YOU A GAY DAD?
From my earlit memori of my Dad around age 5, I thk I always knew my dad was gay. Th I never had that aha moment of realizg “I have a gay father”! To hear both of them tell , my Dad beg gay wasn’t a factor the spl.
How my Dad me to terms wh beg gay.
I don’t thk anyone knew yet that my Dad was gay.
‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD
After all, he was the son of a Baptist Preacher and there would not have been much tolerance the 1940’s or 50’s for him to e out as gay. In talkg to both of them over the years, they both claim they had no ia my Dad was gay.
In retrospect, the fact that he was a cheerlear his bt iend was a male hairdrser (who was openly gay) that my Uncle Buddy nicknamed him “Percy” (which my Dad hated) and that my Dad went on to open a home furnishgs store might have been a clue.
GAY FATHERS WHO COME OUT MID-LIFE
Realizg his sexualy and beg a gay father the late 1960s, pecially wh me a long way away, mt have been really transformative for my Dad. He lived and around the Oak Lawn area of Dallas (long a predomantly gay or at least gay-iendly neighborhood). He was meetg lots of openly gay people & gog to clubs where was OK to be openly gay.