For Father's Day, NPR spoke to three, gay sgle fathers who ma the choice to bee parents via surrogacy.
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
Photographer Bart Heynen set out across the untry to make a visual archive of gay fatherhood "Dads." * gay fathers worldwide *
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.
‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD
* gay fathers worldwide *
”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. 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.
MOVG PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERS WH THEIR FAI ACROSS AMERI
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.