From Andrew Harmon in The Advocate.

This is a good read by Pamela Madsen.
Check out more of her stuff at http://www.thefertilityadvocate.com

Brush up on your Spanish!

There is no greater gift that a person can receive than having a baby, which is something that two gay fathers from Britain know first hand. With the help of an egg donor and a surrogate mother who helped them welcome twins over a decade ago, they were able to achieve their dream of having children. Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow were actually the first gay couple to become parents in the U.K., and since their first babies were born, they've added three more kids into their family -- who were all born using a surrogate.

They may have their hands full with their brood of five at home, but now they want to help other same-sex couples achieve their dream of becoming moms and dads as well. They opened a surrogacy center that caters to other same-sex couples who want to add little ones into the mix and wouldn't otherwise be able to have kids.

Using an egg donor and a surrogate isn't exactly a new concept, and there's really no reason that gay couples can't go to any other regular surrogacy center to try and conceive a child. However, it's hard to imagine that they would be able to get the same level of understanding and support they would receive by going to Barrie and Tony's center instead.

When you are going through an experience as emotional as trying to have a baby, there are plenty of people who are ready and willing to offer you advice. But sometimes all you really want to hear is a comforting voice telling you that everything is going to be ok, and that all of your feelings are valid.

When I was pregnant, the only people who I really felt truly comprehended what I was feeling and thinking were my other friends who had welcomed babies before me. And after I had my baby, I took great comfort in the advice and camaraderie that my fellow mom friends gave me. And had I adopted a baby or used a surrogate or some other method to become a parent, then I would have wanted to connect with other people who had been through the same thing.

Same-sex couples experience different hurdles and challenges in becoming parents than heterosexual couples, so it makes perfect sense that they would flock to a surrogacy center that caters specifically to their needs. For gay couples in the U.K. who want to start a family, this center sounds like the perfect place to start.

Did you use a surrogate to have your baby? What advice can you offer other parents who are using the same route to have a child?

 

Image via Greencolander/Flickr

From The Stir. The two dads discussed in this piece were the first gay couple to become parents in the UK.

From OK! Magazine

What are your thoughts on "social surrogacy?" And read what Sharon LaMothe says about it.

Jeff Goldblum.(Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Rachel Berry has two dads. We’ve known this since the 2009 pilot episode of Glee, but what we haven’t known is who they are. Imagine our excitement, then, when it was announced that Jeff Goldblum (Jeff Goldblum!) and Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell were cast as Hiram and LeRoy Berry, the musically-inclined adoptive parents of (Jewish) Rachel, played by Lea Michele (born Lea Michele Sarfati, what up).

And their debut in the Valentine’s Day episode, Heart, didn’t disappoint. We first meet Hiram (Goldblum) and LeRoy (Stokes Mitchell) in the high school auditorium, where Rachel and Finn arrive after receiving mysterious notes signed Mandy Patinkin (!). Hiram and LeRoy enter with a rolling piano, naturally, but something’s amiss: LeRoy had a dream about Tony Danza, and Hiram can’t contain his jealousy. Dads, am I right?

The best scene, however, comes later in the (otherwise lackluster) episode when Finn’s family is invited over to the Berry’s for dinner. Spoiler alert: high school seniors Rachel and Finn got engaged, and the celebratory meal is part of a parent-concocted reverse psychology scheme to get them to ultimately realize they are too young to get married. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t really work.

Goldblum rocks menschy Moscot glasses (the Lemtosh!) and a kind of amazing purple v-neck sweater and generally plays Hiram absurdly, referring to Nate Berkus as a “dear, dear friend” when Finn’s mother compliments the home decor (LeRoy cuts in and informs her it’s not true). He refers to his daughter as “Ruchela,” reminds her never to go to bed without moisturizing, and then informs Leroy he’s already taken three Xanax. The performance works, oddly enough, because Rachel herself is so insanely high-drama and spotlight-hungry—why wouldn’t her dad be even more outrageously so?

Yet Hiram is quickly seized by guilt (classic) when he realizes the extent to which they’ve lied to their only child, pretending they approve of her engagement when really they think she’s too young to be making those kinds of decisions. “Honesty, respect, dance,” Goldblum somehow deadpans, “Those are the foundations of the Berry family.”

Jeff Goldblum can do no wrong. As Marc Tracy pointed out in December, when Goldblum himself was awarded a spot on Tablet’s 100 Greatest Jewish Films, “he doesn’t even need to act! He just needs to be Jeff Goldblum.”

See for yourself:

‘Glee’ casts Rachel Berry’s dads [CNN Marquee blog]
Related: Outsiders [Tablet Magazine]
No. 75: Every Jeff Goldblum Movie Ever [Tablet Magazine]
Earlier: Jewish Characters on ‘Glee’ to Reunite
‘Glee’ Star Scores Golden Globe Nod

From Tablet Magazine