Photographer Bart Heynen set out across the untry to make a visual archive of gay fatherhood "Dads."
Contents:
- GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?
- MOVG PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERS WH THEIR FAI ACROSS AMERI
- AFTER ORLANDO, 21 PHOTOS OF GAY DADS AND THEIR KIDS TO HELP YOU SE AGA
- MY HBAND IS GAY BUT WE’RE MARRIED WH TWO KIDS AND HAVE GREAT SEX
- KIDS OF GAY PARENTS FARE WORSE, STUDY FDS, BUT REARCH DRAWS FIRE OM EXPERTS
GAY PARENTS RAISG KIDS: HOW WILL THEY FARE?
The price of parenthood n be stly for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people, pecially those pennt on assisted reproductive technology. * gays having kids *
A gay or transgenr person’s optns for parentg clu:. Or, let’s say we have a gay cisgenr uple, Alex and Zack.
Others may be ncerned that sgle men or gay male upl would have a harr time adoptg jt bee they are men, but this may not be te. “For gay male sgl/upl, we have particularly easier the matchg procs, as there is no other mom 'replacg' the child’s birth mother and often get chosen quicker.
”Hobgood and his hband are among an creasg number of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people the U. ”Fay Equaly polled 500 LGBTQ and 1, 004 non-LGBTQ adults, and found that the sire to bee parents is nearly intil among both lower- and higher-e lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people. ”The report outl the diverse array of optns now available to lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people lookg to have children, and the sts associated wh them, which n range om ls than $300 for those g a known sperm donor to over $150, 000 for those pursug gtatnal female upl typilly rely on artificial sematn wh donated sperm to nceive children, which ually sts several thoand dollars and is not always vered by surance.
MOVG PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERS WH THEIR FAI ACROSS AMERI
The days, gay parents are no novelty. * gays having kids *
”Impact of ‘relig eedom’ adoptn lawsState laws that lim gay upl’ abily to adopt n make the procs even more difficult and stly, wh some prospective parents optg to relote to more LGBTQ-iendly stat to adopt or pursue fertily treatments. The days, gay parents are no novelty: We see them strollg through our neighborhoods, participatg our PTA meetgs, and, perhaps most notably, appearg on our TV screens: Mchell and Cam, fathers to Lily, on the ratgs smash Morn Fay; Glee’s Sue Sylvter, expectant mom to a baby nceived wh an as-yet-unrevealed sperm donor, and Rachel’s dads, played wh humor and grace by Jeff Goldblum and Brian Stok. The Hollywood exampl are important that they’ve helped prent gay parentg as not unlike straight parentg: challengg, joyful, plited, and most of all, entirely normal.
Though this media mastreamifitn of gay parentg is a relatively new phenomenon, for s, gay parents have had children all sorts of fay nfiguratns—whether through adoptn, prev heterosexual relatnships, or, creasgly, by choosg to have blogil offsprg g vro, surrogate, and other methods. Last November Illois, Catholic Chari ceased s adoptn servic after the state refed fundg unls the groups agreed not to discrimate agast gays and lbians. Although gay and lbian parents are a powerful rource for kids need of adoptn—at least half of all children foster re the U.
AFTER ORLANDO, 21 PHOTOS OF GAY DADS AND THEIR KIDS TO HELP YOU SE AGA
* gays having kids *
Are livg wh adoptive gay parents—Catholic Chari simply qu the bs rather than ply. Earlier this month, when Print Obama announced his support for same sex marriage days after North Carola voted to ban , he changed the nversatn nsirably by argug that ncern for children is a reason to support, rather than oppose, gay marriage. He ced gay upl his own life, “same-sex upl who are as mted, as monogamo, as rponsible, as lovg a group of parents as any heterosexual uple that I know, ” he said.
MY HBAND IS GAY BUT WE’RE MARRIED WH TWO KIDS AND HAVE GREAT SEX
The Father's Day photos of gay dads and their fai show that love all forms. * gays having kids *
” His support for gay marriage was self a landmark turn, but jt as notable was s direct affirmatn of gay upl as parents, which served to rebut the standard argument agast gay marriage—namely, that risks the well-beg of children and the fay. They want to know: How will the children of gay parents fare?
Can kids raised homosexual hom turn out (gasp) okay? Throughout many years of workg wh fai, I’ve studied the liv of gay parents raisg sons and dghters. In general, gay parents tend to be more motivated, more mted, and more thoughtful parents than heterosexual upl.
In my work, I routely saw how, wh enough support om their fai, children of gay parents veloped skills at thkg penntly and standg up for what they believed . Much of the ncern for the children of gay parents has centered specifilly on boys, who as a group have seemed, pecially recent years, prey to nfn, rentment, and stctivens—somethg creded to the risg proportn of mal beg reared fatherls hom.
KIDS OF GAY PARENTS FARE WORSE, STUDY FDS, BUT REARCH DRAWS FIRE OM EXPERTS
Geic rearch is advancg to the day when gay upl uld fulfill their dreams of havg children related to them both. * gays having kids *
Will they grow up to be gay? And, fact, all the rearch has reported children of gay parents feel ls bound, ls rtricted, by genr stereotyp than those raised straight hoeholds.
But kids of gay parents do often face discrimatn, and ’s not always the easit childhood (though show me one that is). Perhaps as a by-product of the discrimatn they sometim face, children of gay parents tend to be more sensive to others and to the posive and negative feelgs themselv.
And they have no greater chance of “turng gay” than the child wh the straight parents next door. Science has proven that homosexualy has blogil roots, and if we believe that is neher a choice nor an unlucky orientatn, then we n relax and tst that the young men and women will fd out what possibily naturally to them.
Hey, Daddy! is a monthly lumn explorg the joys and stggl of parentg om a gay father’s perspective. Got a topic ia or qutn for... * gays having kids *
As one boy, 10-year-old Kenny, told me matter-of-factly, “I’ll know if I’m gay or straight when I’m olr.