The Huffington Post covers this story with a great photo
of two women kissing in front of a No-Voter, taken by
photographer James Delaney.

See more of the story here

The debate over Dolce and Gabanna’s prejudiced criticisms of gay families and IVF continues.

Their comments to Italian magazine Panoroma this weekend included "we oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one,” "having children should be an 'act of love'” [Dolce]. “You are born to a mother and a father - or at least that's how it should be. I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalogue” [Dolce].

It’s great to see high profile gay parents like Elton John and Ricky Martin standing up for all our loving families via the Twitter and Instagram campaign. It’s a shame that such well-known gay fashion moguls who could be doing so much to support the gay parenting community, have instead voiced such homophobia.

Aside from the gay community, their comments alienate hundreds of thousands of people worldwide: single parents and those who have been blessed with families through fertility treatment. Stefano Gabbana has since said that "it was never our intention to judge other people's choices.” It seems the initial comments were not thought out in the slightest.

At We Are Family magazine we hear so much positivity about LGBT families. Last week was LGBT Adoption and Fostering Week. The feedback from agencies there was they really like LGBT applicants because we tend to be in stable, loving relationships, we approach adoption as our first choice and we’re resilient to the stress of the application process. After a decade of seeing LGBT adopters as an unknown, agencies are now seeing LGBT people making a resounding success as adoptive parents.

We also know many happy gay families who have gone through IVF and surrogacy. Anyone interested in surrogacy should go to the Families Through Surrogacy conference in London this Saturday where they’ll hear from many gay fathers and experts such as Dr Guy Ringler who ‘mixed’ Elton John and David Furness’s embryos that gave the couple their first child.

There is no evidence or weight to D&G’s comments. They are simply thoughtless bigotry. The most important elements to a child’s upbringing are love, stability and consistency. The package of the ‘parental’ provider is irrelevant.

The path to parenthood for the LGBT community can bring us face to face with our own demons and internalised homophobia can come up. This is a gift, an opportunity for us to grow as individuals. We must address and work through these issues with self-reflection, honesty and love.

campaign

This month to mark the Families Through Surrogacy conference on 21 March, We Are Family magazine is publishing a special Surrogacy Supplement, including an incredible in-depth story of international surrogacy. Throughout the month we’ll be releasing thought-provoking excerpts of the story to stimulate comment and discussion and give you a glimpse into the many decisions that must be made when starting a family through surrogacy.

The instalments will be released over the next two weeks. Here are the titles to whet your appetite:

• Multiple Embryos, Double the Surrogates
• A Difficult Choice: Reducing Embryos, plus Getting a Passport
• Birth Certificates, International Consulates & Difficult Officials
• Leaving the Babies in the Hands of Strangers, and Paternity Leave
• Parental Status Across International Borders

To find the stories go to our library and search surrogacy

This year's LGBT Adoption & Fostering Week is Monday 2 March - Sunday 8 March, and we’re delighted to be able to offer some great value short-term event ads. Advertise your open days, information evenings & drop-ins on our gorgeous new website - we’ll be promoting the page so tons of extra people could be looking at your ad! Click here to find out more.

Thailand’s interim parliament has passed a law prohibiting foreigners and gay couples from using Thai surrogacy services. Thailand has been a popular destination for fertility tourism for the gay community in the past few years due to competitive pricing and a lack of formal regulations, but negative attention brought byrecent high profile cases influenced the decision to ban foreign and gay couple surrogacies. In the baby Gammy case a Western Australian couple allegedly refused to take home one of their twins who had Down’s syndrome, returning to Australia with their baby girl. In the ‘baby factory’ case a Japanese man fathered16 children through surrogacy and planned to have many more.

In August 2013 Thailand preliminarily approved the draft to ban foreign surrogacy. The law passed its first reading in November 2014 becoming law on the 20^th of February 2015. The new law stipulates that couples seeking surrogacy must be heterosexual and married for at least three years, and one must be Thai. The surrogate mother must be Thai and over the age of 25. The government has allowed clinics to continue treatment with clients who had already started treatment. Many clinics are moving their activities across the border.

On the 9^th of February 2015 Alabama became the 37^th state in the United States to legalise same sex-marriage. Shante Wolfe and Tori Sisson became the first ever same-sex couple to be married in Montgomery, Alabama. They were married outside the Montgomery County Courthouse in front of friends and the press.