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

Contents:

• DAD AND DAD: A JOURNEY TO GAY FATHERHOOD – PICTUR
• DAD AND DAD: A JOURNEY TO GAY FATHERHOOD – PICTUR
• ‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD
• THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS
• MOVG PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERS WH THEIR FAI ACROSS AMERI

DAD AND DAD: A JOURNEY TO GAY FATHERHOOD – PICTUR

Clton, MarylandThey are the first both their fai to bee gay fathers, and received a warm wele to parenthood.

Asbury Park, New JerseyThe most stunng takeaway om photographg gay dads is the equaly of their partnership while raisg their children. Brooklyn, New YorkWhile makg Dads I was surprised to fd out how many gay sgle dads there are creatg their fay through adoptn or surrogacy. It was hard to fd black fai wh gay fathers livg NYC.

Province, Rho IslandArt and Jim were one of the first gay upl to bee fathers through adoptn.

DAD AND DAD: A JOURNEY TO GAY FATHERHOOD – PICTUR

Tom and Mike wh their son Jack at a lacrosse practice at Horace Mann School, Bronx, New YorkThroughout the book the children of gay dads grow olr. Although the school and Jack’s iends know that Jack has two gay dads there was some tensn the air while posg for this photo the middle of a sports field wh all the other players around. New York CySome gay dads choose not to share who the blogil father of their children is.

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.

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. 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.

‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD

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.

THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS

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.

MOVG PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERS WH THEIR FAI ACROSS AMERI

"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.

" 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. 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.