Where Did You Get Them?

[Principessa]

Where Did You Get Them?

I'm different. I'm a gay. And I'm a husband. And I am a dad of future twin girl presidents, Rose and Evan. Yes, Evan is the name of my daughter and Evan is also typically a boys name. But that's very now. All the kids with kids are doing it. Go to the park. Call out the name Charlie or Billy. See who looks up. It will surprise you. But that has nothing to do with anything. You should just know. In preparation for Air Force One travel, we took the girls on their first trip to New York City for the long weekend. Grandma and Grandpa wanted to show off their five month old granddaughters to everyone at their country club on Long Island. Organization and preparation are your friends when you're moving the future leaders of the free world across the United States. But when you get right down to it, you're just a roadie. You're a roadie for a baby. You carry everything this person could possibly want or need on your body at all times. There's really nothing you can't deliver at a moments notice.

*SNIP*​

But I digress, that's not really what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the underlying responsibility of being a gay dad. We're trying so hard to fit in. We're trying to get married and share insurance policies and we're trying to go on typical family vacations to see Grandma and Grandpa. I even did my best to describe the normal madness of traveling with small ones. But there's nothing normal about turning the car around when you're half way to the airport because you forgot your daughters birth certificate. That's right. Having Rose and Evan's original, authenticated birth certificate was the other thing this baby roadie had to have on his person. It mattered as much as infant Zantac and warm hats and clean diapers. Keep in mind, we were two men traveling with two little girls. If you look at it with a crooked eye you can make yourself see things. Can you imagine if you had to deal with indignity of having to explain your family? Even worse, proving that your biological daughter was yours?

Progress sometimes comes in baby steps.

 

[B_Jennuine73]

I'm impressed with whoever wrote this NJ.

 

[Not_Punny]

Aw, shucks.

* wipes tear *

 

[Principessa]

I'm impressed with whoever wrote this NJ.

That would be Max Mutchnick of the Huffington Post. He is definetely in the right field. I welled up a bit as I read the whole article.

 

[vince]

Great article NJ. I just want to say that the part about traveling with your little girl's birth certificate isn't limited to gay fathers.

Twice I received the third degree from officialdom when I was on holiday alone with my daughter. Once when I was pulled over for speeding in Oregon the trooper asked to see ID for her. It also happened when crossing into Canada by automobile. The immigration officer had been a bit lippy and I was a bit lippy back. She asked, with a gleam in her eye, "Do you have ID for the girl?" I pulled out her passport and she sent us on our way.

During all the extensive traveling we did as a family, we were never asked for ID for the kiddo. We could have been a man and women kidnap team for all the US border guys knew. Of course we always had to have a passport for her when we went to other countries, but not the US. It's a good idea to take some ID for your kids when you are away from home.

 

[vince]

oops

 

[midlifebear]

I, too, think that was a great post, NJ:

I still have many friends in committed relationships in the Beehive State (Ewetaw) where it is now illegal for gays to adopt or be foster parents. In addition, those gay parents with children living in counties other than Salt Lake County are repeatedly given the third degree by reps of the local school boards, police, and child services -- even if those children are their own from a marriage that ended in divorce. It doesn't seem to matter if the gay parents are men or women, they constantly suffer the scrutiny of the State. I imagine it must be the same in Bible Belt States throughout the central and southern States, too.

I started a thread regarding bad school lunch foods where I claim the real reason for me quitting teaching elementary school was because of the smell. Basically, that's true. But in all school districts in Ewetaw, expect for the Salt Lake City School district (which is very small) there was and are regular witch hunts to ferret out and accuse gay teachers of moral misconduct. Had I stayed an elementary teacher it would have been only a matter of time before I suffered the same fate. In all cases I'm aware of where gay teachers were fired, there was no cause for immoral or improper behavior with children. While at the same time Ewetaw looks the other way when the feebly fuckwad who is hanging on to his job as a high school driving instructor gets caught feeling up a 15 year-old student. He's otherwise a good member of "the ward" and therfore look the other way. That's one of Ewetaw's public school system specialities: letting LDS heterosexual teachers off the hook for feeling up students (unless it becomes a problem so extreme that parents end up getting involved).