'Dads': A new photobook celebrat gay fathers wh their fai across Ameri | CNN

Contents:

• HOW I ACCINTALLY FOUND OUT MY DAD IS GAY
• THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS
• SGLE GAY DADS GIVE TIPS FOR FIRST-TIME PARENTS: ‘I CREATED THE VILLAGE AROUND MYSELF’
• ‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD
• THE GAY FATHER I NEVER KNEW
• MOVG PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERS WH THEIR FAI ACROSS AMERI
• IS YOUR DAD GAY—OR ARE YOU A GAY DAD?
• GROWG UP WH A GAY FATHER – CONFSNS OM A STRAIGHT SON
• DAD AND DAD: A JOURNEY TO GAY FATHERHOOD – PICTUR

HOW I ACCINTALLY FOUND OUT MY DAD IS GAY

My brother picked up the word for "gay" – a word my dad repeated several tim durg that that pot, my parents had told they had problems their marriage, but a few months later, when I was around ne years old, we still went on our annual fay summer holiday to France. Until, out of nowhere, my brother sudnly asked, "Dad, are you gay? "There aren't a lot of gay people out there wh a wife and children, " he told me.

I once tagged along wh him to his favoure gay bar, where I met all the iends he's ma there over the years. 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.

THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS

"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.

SGLE GAY DADS GIVE TIPS FOR FIRST-TIME PARENTS: ‘I CREATED THE VILLAGE AROUND MYSELF’

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. " 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. In fact, gay sgle dads are part of a growg movement that has seen a signifint surge of tert the last few years, as noted by the New York get a more plete picture of the joys of fatherhood, Yahoo Life spoke to four sgle gay dads who prove that love is what tly mak a fay. (urty photo)When Puerto Rin TikTok star José Rolón me out at 18 years old, there were few public exampl of gay fathers.

“But after everythg is said and done, adoptn for gay men is still really difficult.

‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD

”Fzpatrick, whose father, a gay Black man, was killed senselsly by gun vlence the parkg lot of a gay bar when Fzpatrick was 18, says that fatherhood gave him unique opportuni to turn his paful past to purpose through the love of his dghter.

“I thk that gay parents make the bt parents the world, ” he says. “A lot of gay men, as they get olr, bee lonely.

THE GAY FATHER I NEVER KNEW

One night, Hilton, a sgle gay dad who's weled three children via surrogate, opened up to Evans about the joys of fatherhood and his own journey. ”“I was gog through that empts of growg olr as a gay man and not havg a signifint other and not havg the life I once lived, and not unrstandg where I was gog, ” he ntu.

MOVG PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERS WH THEIR FAI ACROSS AMERI

“I know all the gay dads who do too. ”Hunter, a succsful divorce attorney wh his own private practice Los Angel, says he was badly bullied as a teenager for beg gay. Heynen planned to photograph for a book of photography featurg gay fathers and their children.

”Amerin culture has not been particularly starved of imag of gay fatherhood, particularly recent years.

IS YOUR DAD GAY—OR ARE YOU A GAY DAD?

Celebri like Anrson Cooper have helped normalize the ia of gay men raisg children, and no longer feels revelatory to see them on televisn, as did when “Morn Fay” premiered mon, Mr.

GROWG UP WH A GAY FATHER – CONFSNS OM A STRAIGHT SON

Heynen said, are imag of gay fathers who aren’t Instagram ready — like two men bg their dghters’ hair or tossg a football the ont yard.

It’s an unrstandable impulse, which he attribut to a sire among gay parents to feel “normal” after havg their pabili as parents ntually lled to qutn. Heynen said, but rather a celebratn of the day-to-day liv of gay Jt for the YoungCly Rose, 61, and Ryan, 12Cly Rose, who liv Manhattan, was first photographed for “Dads” three years ago after meetg Mr.

Heynen at an event at the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgenr Communy Center New York Cy. Heynen “a lot of cred” for cludg a father like him — a sgle dad his 60s — sce he said there is often a lack of reprentatn of olr gay people art and media, which tends to foc on young, f men. As a Black, gay man raisg a son on his own, Mr.

DAD AND DAD: A JOURNEY TO GAY FATHERHOOD – PICTUR

I also knew that my dad mt be gay—bee, well, of urse. While I’d never met an out gay man, I kd of knew what they were supposed to be like om movi and TV, and Dad f the mold: He loved to ok; he cleaned obssively; he kept the Internatnal Male talog around, bee, he said, “I like the cloth. “You know, ” I said to Dad, “I asked Mom once if you were gay.

“Gay? “I’m not gay.