If anyone saw me walking around Target looking a little confused and sad earlier today now you know https://t.co/f8qA6YRI8I
— Chasten Buttigieg (@Chasten) April 4, 2022
On Monday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten shared details about their twins’ first day in daycare.
While Pete Buttigieg mentioned all “the bottles… little jars of baby food… spoons” and everything else that parents rely on to raise kids, Chasten Buttigieg merely tweeted, “If anyone saw me walking around Target looking a little confused and sad earlier today now you know.”
Of course, Pete and Chasten Buttigieg are just one of several famous gay couples raising kids.
Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka
The actor couple’s twins — a son named Gideon and a daughter named Harper — were born via surrogate in October 2010.
“We live up in Harlem so they see a ton of stuff, and they’re exposed to stuff at a young age,” Burka said in an Us magazine interview. “I think they grow from that. I think when you’re living in a house in the Valley or Beverly Hills you don’t get to see that much, whereas here, you get to see and experience so much.”
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Elton John and David Furnish
The pop god and his filmmaker husband have two twin boys, Zachary and Elijah. John and Furnish have both said they’re trying to raise their kids to be down-to-Earth and to respect work and money, despite being born rich.
“[My dad] never told me he loved me, he didn’t hold me, and he didn’t come to see me perform,” John said in a 2015 speech. “And when [David and I] had our own children, I never stopped telling them I loved them, and they never stop telling me they love me.”
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Denis O’Hare and Hugo Redwood
O’Hare, who is best known for his work in the American Horror Story TV series, and his husband adopted their son, Declan, in 2014. The couple began raising the boy as foster fathers when he was just five days old.
“We have always been a family – the legal system just caught up,” O’Hare tweeted afterward.
“Just to have it legal and on paper really makes our tribe complete,” Redwood wrote.
Ricky Martin and Jean Yosef
The Latin pop star and his artist husband have four kids: twins named Matteo and Valentino, a daughter named Lucia and a son named Renn. Martin began raising the two youngest kids as a single parent in 2008.
“Many years I dreamt of being a father, and many, many, many times I went through this grieving process of ‘I am gay, I am a closeted gay man, and I’m not going to be able to be a daddy,’” Martin said.
“I became a daddy when I was 35; it’s not the same thing when you’re 48,” he added. “You need the energy! And I’m strong, trust me, I’m healthy — I’m carrying two babies at the same time and the stroller and the backpack — but it’s a lot. It’s a big responsibility.”
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Matt Bomer and Simon Halls
The actor and his husband, a PR executive, have three boys: twins Walker and Henry and Kit. The boys are all in their teenage years.
“I just want to be hopefully somebody who helps shape these souls without changing how they came into the world,” Bomer told People magazine. “To just give them the structure they need to thrive in the world but at the same time let their own personalities shine through. Some days that’s easier than others.”
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Lesbian couples and queer single parents
We also want to give a shout-out to two well-known celebrity female couples raising kids.
Actress Cynthia Nixon and her wife Christine Marinoni have three kids: Samuel Mozes and Charles Mozes (from Nixon’s ex-husband), and Max Ellington Nixon-Marinoni. Samuel Mozes, pictured below, is a trans man.
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Comedian Wanda Sykes and her spouse Alex have two fraternal twins, Olivia and Lucas. Wanda Skyes joked about wanting to return one of her kids after she realized just how little sleep mothers get when raising newborns.
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It’s also important to give some love to all of the out single celebrity parents raising kids out there, including journalist Anderson Cooper, Queer Eye‘s culture expert Karamo Brown, director Lee Daniels, Bravo executive Andy Cohen, and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, to name a few.
ShiningSex
I guess good for them.
I hate kids and think they’re obnoxious.
LGBT community should be allowed to adopt.
I think more should adopt instead of trying to have their own. There are plenty of children that need good homes, start there.
Just.my.opinion
How do you think your life would have turned out if all adults who knew you as a child hated you and thought you were obnoxious?
missvamp
100% with you. i can’t stand kids. totally for adoption & fostering. people need to skip surrogacy & fertility treatments. it’s too costly & problematic for women involved. far too many kids who need homes.
Joshooeerr
The oft-repeated notion that “there are plenty of children” waiting for adoption is not necessarily true. The number of kids up for adoption has diminished massively over the past few decades; it’s not like the fifties or sixties when unwed mothers were routinely pressured to adopt. The wait for an adopted child can now be five or more years in many places, with no guarantees. Also, in many places adoptions are handled by religious organisations who mostly exclude same-sex couples. Even where adoptions are handled by the state there can be undisclosed bias against same-sex couples, who can ultimately find their turn will never come up. This is why many same-sex couples (and not just the rich celebrities) go down the much more expensive surrogacy path.
Kangol2
I can’t speak to other countries, but in 2020, there were 117,470 children waiting to be adopted in the US. That is not an insignificant number. If the US SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade and allows states to restrict medical abortions and contraceptives, as some on the extreme right want, that number could surge. It is still a lot of children without permanent families or homes.
Essie
Anderson Cooper isn’t a “single father.” He and his ex-boyfriend are raising their two children together. Both kids have both mens’ last names and Cooper’s ex adopted both boys. Just, fyi. This is a great article. I knew about all of them but I didn’t know Matt Bomer’s kids were so old. For some reason I thought they were still babies.
cuteguy
Ricky Martin has no business age shaming. Just bc he can’t do the same things at 48 he did at 35 doesn’t mean others can’t. He is a proven liar and manipulator about his coming out story. His fame was on the decline and he needed a gimmick so he decided to “come out” even tho everyone already knew.
Yooper
Nothing in his comment can be construed as age shaming (the whole “shaming” bandwagon is getting ridiculous). As for “proven liar”, “manipulator”, “fame in decline”, not following at all.
Prax07
IDGAF about kids, so if others want/need to get them, ok on them? Kids are a waste of time/money, especially when they aren’t bio IMO, but whatever floats your boat I guess.
monty clift
Glad to see there’s positive representation of gay men being parents.
ShiningSex
I REPEAT KIDS ARE BORING!!!
Jaquelope
That means you’ve probably never had any of your own, or spent any time around them.
Yooper
Man, you’d think some of the people commenting were never children themselves. Kids are kids, sometimes not pleasant to be around, but in general kids are pretty fascinating creatures and joyful to watch grow into adults. Sure, parenting isn’t for everyone, myself included, but words and phrases like hate and not giving a F, are a bit severe.
The real Bruce
Several years ago I was on a flight to Hawaii to help celebrate a friend’s son’s birthday. On the flight were two kids, twin boys, six years old. They kept running up and down the aisles chasing each other. Flight attendants were busy and did nothing. At one point, I finally had enough and told them to go outside and play. Nearby passengers started laughing. They stopped, looked at me and then each other and at their mom, who gave me a “death look”. After being “too busy” to look after them. They had such hurt look on their faces, I regretted saying what I had. I suddenly got an idea. In my carry-on was the birthday present, a set of checkers. There was a “lounge area” and I took the wrapped package and told them to follow me. We sat down and I took the wrapping off and set up the checkers. The poor guys didn’t even know what it was! But those little guys were smart and I taught them the game, and they learned fast. After beating each other game after game and me once and having fun doing it, mom finally got curious about where her boys where. She stood there watching as the three of us having such “quiet fun”, almost the whole trip. Just before we landed, she thanked me and said she was meeting her husband upon landing and she had never thought about buying the boys board games. I told her there were dozens for kids to learn. Oh but what about the birthday present. The boys didn’t look like they wanted to give back their new game. Mom said she knew of a games store on Oahu, gave me the name, looked up the address, and gave me $50.00 for a new checkers set and gift wrap and something extra too. I don’t have kids, but I know how to get to them. Aloha!