Contents:
- GAY PARENTHOOD AND THE END OF PATERNYAS WE KNEW IT
- IS DREW LYNCH GAY? WHY HIS PARENTS QUTNED HIS SEXUALY
- IS DREW CAREY GAY? THE GENR ORIENTATN OF THE AMERIN COMEDIAN AND VETERAN
GAY PARENTHOOD AND THE END OF PATERNYAS WE KNEW IT
19 | Durg all the speculatn that Parenthood‘s Drew might be gay, did you ever, even for a send, thk Haddie would turn out to be the show’s (sorely lackg) gay character?! Bee homosexuals are rarely monogamo, often havg as many as three hundred or more partners a lifetime — some studi say is typilly more than one thoand — children those polyamoro suatns are ught a perpetual g and gog. Gay fathers were once as unthkable as they were visible.
Was by nvcg policians and the public to regard risg rat of fatherlsns as a natnal emergency, 1 growg numbers of gay men were embracg fatherhood. Examg the experienc of gay men who have openly pursued parenthood agast the odds n help to unrstand forc that unrlie the cle of paterny as we knew . Contrary to the fears of many the marriage promotn movement, however, gay parentg is not a new symptom of the mise of fatherhood, but of s creative, if ntroversial, reventn.
IS DREW LYNCH GAY? WHY HIS PARENTS QUTNED HIS SEXUALY
When I paid close attentn to gay men’s parentg sir, efforts, challeng, and achievements, I unearthed ccial featur of ntemporary paterny and parenthood more generally.
Gay men nont the featur of postmorn parenthood a magnified mo. 4 Gay men who choose to bee primary parents challenge nventnal fns of masculy and paterny and even domant sexual norms of gay culture self. Gay sex lumnist Dan Savage mocked the cultural stak volved when he and his partner were cidg to adopt a child: “Terry and I would be givg up certa thgs that, for better or worse, fe what means to be gay.
Gay fatherhood reprents “planned parenthood” extremis. Unlike most heterosexuals or even lbians, gay men have to stggle for accs to “the means of reproductn” whout benef of flt scripts for achievg or practicg parenthood. Gay male paterny tensifi this emphasis on social rather than blogil fns of parenthood.
IS DREW CAREY GAY? THE GENR ORIENTATN OF THE AMERIN COMEDIAN AND VETERAN
Bee the available rout to geic parenthood for gay men are formidably expensive, very difficult to negotiate, or both, most prospective gay male parents pursue the purely social paths of adoptn or foster re. Bee there are not enough of the to meet the mand, most stat and unti allow sgle adults, cludg gay men, to shop for parenthood their overstocked warehoe of “hard to place” children. The gross disjuncture between the market value of society’s adoptable children and the supply of prospective adoptive parents allows gay men to parent a hefty share of them.
Imprsive numbers of gay men willgly rcue such children om failg or vastated fai. Jt as their timate adult relatnships, gay men more readily accept children across boundari of race, ethnicy, class, and even health. The multi-racial membership of so many of their fai visually signals the social character of most gay fatherhood.
In addn, as we will see, some gay men, like sgle mother-by-choice Christie Mallmson the epigraph to this chapter, willgly unhch their sexual and romantic sir om their domtic on orr to bee parents. For all of the reasons, gay men provi ontier terra for explorg noteworthy chang the meangs and motiv for paterny and parenthood.