How I Accintally Found Out My Dad Is Gay

Contents:

• HOW I ACCINTALLY FOUND OUT MY DAD IS GAY
• ‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD
• MOVG PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERS WH THEIR FAI ACROSS AMERI
• THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS

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.

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.

‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD

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.

MOVG PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERS WH THEIR FAI ACROSS AMERI

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. 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.

THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS

“I felt a ltle b lonely as a gay dad – although there are two of – but lonely the sense that all the other fai I knew were straight parents, ” Heynen said a vio ll, explag why he began photographg the seri. “I also thought was important for (my kids) to see other fai wh gay dads. “For many people, the book will be an troductn to gay fatherhood.

For Heynen, they reprent addnal love and re and help illtrate some of the cisn-makg that, though not exclive to them, all gay fathers mt ntend wh. “Most of the women are Mormon, and Mormons don’t believe gay marriage and gays havg kids.

Heynen, as well as the fathers he photographed, hope that the photographs “Dads” will dispel some of the hurtful stereotyp that still lger around gay fatherhood. Abplanalp never knew when he was younger that fatherhood would be possible for him as gay man.