Father’s Day 2010: Gay men are dads too!

Stonewall to advise gay men on how to become dads.

Gay parents

Stonewall marks Father’s Day by calling on gay dads to come forward to help inform a major guide focusing on gay dads – how to become one, the legal situation and further support and advice on parenting as a gay dad. This follows Pregnant Pause – Stonewall’s guide for lesbians on how to get pregnant. The new gay dads guide will be released later this year.

Stonewall Senior Public Affairs Officer Sam Dick said: ‘At Stonewall, we know many gay men are dads. But we also know that many more think becoming a dad is beyond their reach. With this groundbreaking new guide, Stonewall aims to show that there are many ways of being a gay dad and encourage those who have perhaps written off the prospect to re-consider.’

So if you’re a gay dad through fostering, adoption, surrogacy, co-parenting or you have children from a previous relationship, Stonewall would like to hear from you. We need case studies to help us with our forthcoming guide on gay dads. Please contact ilana.seager@stonewall.org.uk

Here, Stonewall interviews two men for Father’s Day to find out what life is like as a gay dad:

Gay dads: Vernal Scott

Vernal and his children

Vernal Scott is proud to be a gay dad. He donated to a lesbian couple and has the two adorable children in the picture above.

Happily, his family hasn’t yet experienced any discrimination for having gay people in it. The one thing Vernal would do to make life better for same-sex parents and their children would be to ‘educate everyone about the diversity of modern families.’

Gay dads – Simon and Paul

Foster dads Simon and Paul

Simon and Paul became foster parents through their Local Authority, and they’re now permanent foster dads to Danny.
Danny's classmates ask lots of questions, but that's more out of genuine curiosity about his family setup than from any discrimination or hostility.
Simon says the one thing that’d make life better for same-sex parents and their children is ‘for it not to be an issue – for it to be a boring normality.’