Day: 5 June 2015

We now have same-sex marriage; a long fought fight to gain the same rights as straight couples and although the law has changed to reflect this, have attitudes actually changed on the ground?

I am a gay father of a 10-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy. Whilst I have to say I have not experienced a vast amount of homophobia with the children myself and my partner, there is still a distinct difference being made.

Book a family ticket at the theatre, a theme park, or any other venue where this is an offering and I can almost guarantee they will expect Mum, Dad and 2.4 children. When you turn up as two Dads with the children there is still an audible gasp of horror that we have the bare-faced cheek to call ourselves “a family”.

Families nowadays come in all shapes and sizes and having gay parents is just another variation on the theme.

I have certainly experienced the palpable disgust at two men daring to take children to the theatre and expand their cultural horizons.

Try taking the children to the park, people still look disapprovingly at the fact there are two men daring to love children and are bringing them up to be respectful, accepting and tolerant individuals, imagine that?

People are generally not vocal in the presence of the children but I have experienced the shooing of other children away from mine, as if having gay parents may be catching. In fact I wish it was, my children are fully aware of what it means to be gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender. They are not judgemental in anyway and realise every person regardless of their sexual orientation has the right to love another. There are no prejudices in this household. Honesty is the best policy as children are able to fathom a lot more than we tend to give them credit for and look at things with a far more simplistic logic that us as adults seem to have lost.

Although strides have been made in the acceptance of gay couples, I still feel there is a long way to go for gay parents. Two dads, two kids, two dogs, we are just a family – We can’t all be Elton and David but surely we can all be accepted.

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