Three sgle, gay dads talk about their journeys. : NPR

Contents:

• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS
• GAY DAD NOT WELE AT MANDURAH CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
• MANDURAH SCHOOL THAT CENSORED GAY MAN'S CHILD SILENT FACE OF CRICISM
• STUNT FORCED TO LEAVE MANDURAH PRIVATE SCHOOL OVER GAY DAD
• 'GAY IS THE WAY': FOUNDATN CHRISTIAN COLLEGE GRAFFI ATTACK

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out. In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that. “The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer.

THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS

Gay Water, however, is out and proud. The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny. “Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self,” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh.

He thought of creatg Gay Water about a year ago while on a vatn wh his iend that had got a job wh the beverage dtry. The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail. Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water.

“Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”. For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch. Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN.

GAY DAD NOT WELE AT MANDURAH CHRISTIAN SCHOOL

“There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said. Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space.

Michael Sam beme the first openly gay player to be drafted when the then-St.

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.

MANDURAH SCHOOL THAT CENSORED GAY MAN'S CHILD SILENT FACE OF CRICISM

"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.

STUNT FORCED TO LEAVE MANDURAH PRIVATE SCHOOL OVER GAY DAD

" 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.

A Mandurah private school, which receiv lns of dollars every year taxpayer fundg, has told the father of a seven-year-old girl she would not have been wele had known her parents were gay. Brendan, who has asked for his last name to be whheld to protect the inty of his dghter, raised allegatns of discrimatn on the basis of his sexualy agast Foundatn Christian College last said after his dghter told school iends he was gay, he was told by school prcipal Andrew Newhoe she uld only stay at the school as long as she did not speak of her father’s sexualy or of his relatnship wh his partner.

'GAY IS THE WAY': FOUNDATN CHRISTIAN COLLEGE GRAFFI ATTACK

“[My dghter] got talkg about Tony Abbott and gay marriage and mentned that her dad is wh [my partner] and she was shut down by her teacher and then the teacher had to expla to the class what ‘gay’ is, ” Brendan said. “We were asked to go to a meetg that we thought would be about her tn and how she was gog class to be told that [my dghter] had mentned I’m gay, ” he said. “I was told that they don’t promote ‘gay’ at the school and [my dghter] was unable to talk about my life between [my partner] and me and general stuff about what a kid talks about wh her parents.

“She uld mentn my name, but she uldn’t talk about beg gay or relatg to as a uple, so pretty much to a seven-year-old, we were forced to say to [my dghter] that she wasn’t allowed to talk about Daddy or [my partner] at all. ”"He said to me that 'if we knew you were gay at the terview you would never have got this school'. “He said to me that 'if we knew you were gay at the terview you would never have got this school'.