This just in: Tom Daley‘s been keeping a secret from us.
He and Dustin Lance Black have been quietly working on a documentary about their journey to fatherhood.
Related: Twitter is filled with hate and outrage as Tom Daley and DLB announce the birth of their son
The guys welcomed their first child, Robbie Ray, earlier this summer. He was born via surrogate.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
The film, which is being produced by the BBC, features the new dads discussing the homophobic backlash they suffered, as well as their first days as parents.
In the documentary, Daley will also confront critics of same-sex surrogacy and travel to places where it is illegal. He’ll also challenge U.K. laws that ban couples from placing ads for surrogate mothers or paying them.
“Surrogacy changed Tom and Dustin’s life, but as proven by the backlash they received it’s still a divise subject, particularly where LGBT couples are concerned,” a source tells The Sun.
Related: Less than a week after becoming a dad, Tom Daley is accused of “child abuse” by trolls
The source continues: “With this documentary, Tom hopes to broaden minds, discover exactly why people are against surrogacy, and–after keeping a dignified silence so far–challenge some of his fiercest critics head on.”
Production on the documentary is already underway. It is scheduled to air sometime next year.
Vince
Then again I should say rich peoples problems because very few can afford that kind of opportunity. 100 k and up.
Donston
I have an adopted kid, but I also have one with a female. So, I can’t pretend I don’t have any kids without my dna. But this just seems like an extremely heteronormative, ego driven, expensive, time consuming and potentially dangerous process that you’re putting another person through. All so you can have a baby with your genes. You have the money and pull to adopt any baby from anywhere, including a new born. It’s kinda lame to me. But I do wish them and their baby well.
JK 1984
Donston, my partner and I are thinking of going the adoption and foster route when/If we want to have children,
I understand that “having a genetic link” is really important to most people and I would be lying if I said that want something we looked into and wanted, but unless you do it “the old fashioned way” or informally with a turkey baster it is really expensive to go through surrogacy (at least in my country).
As for Tom and Dustin, good on then for making their family how they wanted to. People will always criticise parents about all manner of things (Not just gay parents but all parents) so I say ‘ F the haters, you do you ‘.
Vince
Another important thing to mention is in 2016 there were 106, 000 children that needed homes. However most will spend their time in institutions.
This kind of reminds me of a puppy mill. Ironically we condemn that but praise this.
Kyle_1983
So pathetic, why do “rich” people have to go through life apologizing for what they worked hard for? Stop bitching and do something productive with your life.
Donston
My post was more of a “this isn’t the route I would go down and here’s why” rather than trying to damn them for creating a family in the way they saw fit. I do feel the backlash they recieved was ridiculous and mostly driven by male homophobia (if these were two women who had a surrogate would anyone have cared?) as well as people just not liking them.
Kangol
@Kyle_1983, not all rich people “worked hard” for their money. Quite a few inherit it, and do little to help the rest of society, let alone themselves.
Josh447
Donston,
You said “My post was more of a “this isn’t the route I would go down and here’s why” rather than trying to damn them for creating a family in the way they saw fit.”
But that’s a lie. You did damn them. You called their actions “lame egocentric heteronormative” etc. You basically barfed all over them.
When are you going to learn to shut up and receive that not everyone is like you, and stop your addiction to attacking and complaining those who subscribed to your insulated tunnel vision? Your life is obviously not a happy one. You take it out on on the public in most every post you write.
You’re the most intellectually negative person I’ve ever experienced on the net.
These are good people. They need our support, not derision. Think B4 you speak man, then contemplate, maybe then you’ll start getting a happier life.
Donston
Josh447, when are you going to accept that I’m not a kiss-ass who will blindly supports any dude who admits that he’s into dudes? Just as everyone is different, its also okay for people not to agree about everything and have sometimes at-odds discussions.
And I stand by what I said. I think it’s borderline lame to have a child through implant surrogacy involving someone outside your relationship when you very much have other options. And I don’t care whether it’s two men, two women, a hetero couple, etc. Doesn’t mean I think it should be baned, that it’s morally wrong, that anyone who does it is bad a person or that I don’t wish these families well.
Donston
Also, while you’re constantly throwing shade my way and accusing me of being too nitpicky and serious about everything (which I admit I can be) you’re also very much like the thought police. That’s something you might need to get in check while you’re determing how others need to self-examine. Not everyone is going to align with your way of thinking. Either engage with them and tell them why you think they’re wrong or don’t. But you’re not going to stop people from thinking how they think. Even when someone’s being purposely hateful, people disagreeing with me has never moved me as much as it seems to unnerve you. Which is why I’m impossible to troll.
Josh447
Donston
Many on here have commented to you about your negative attitude of which you don’t seem to care. You just keep on slamming our own and we really don’t like it. If you don’t want to keep getting called out, chill your anger and grow up.
I think I’m going to leave it at: you’re an anxiety ridden gay black man with white man issues, hence much attacking of the white gay community, and leave it at that.
broadshoulder
As someone said
It furthers his career
RobtheElder
I was heterosexually married and will be glad to share the circumstances, if anyone wants to read them, but my comment here concerns children. My wife had been married before and had a young son (5 1/2 years old when we married). We determined not to raise our son as a single and cranked up the machinery to have another. We had twin daughters 9 months later. My surrogate, I guess you could say was my wife, whose first husband had died. No one speculated, or had anything to say about my family then or now. Thirteen years after we married, we divorced. My son (whom we had adopted) came to live with me, and almost immediately went off to college. A year after the divorce, one daughter wanted to leave her mother to come to live with me. I had told my daughters they could do that. I immediately began to look for a larger condo. A year later, my other daughter wanted to join her sister and me. We moved into a huge 3 bedroom condo. My ex was fit to be tied. I couldn’t worry about that, I had children to raise, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it. I don’t think my story will particularly help Tom and Dustin, but it should assure them that a single man can be up to the task… RobtheElder
Greg
Would you adopt me?
Russell1947
Good on you
RobtheElder
Reading my comment, above, I realized some of you might not understand without help. My son was originally a product of his father, and had his natural father’s last name. My wife and I wanted our family to be as unified as possible. I couldn’t adopt my son without taking him away from his mother, so we gave his custody to the state, and then we jointly adopted him. He’s his mother’s natural child, and her adopted child as well. This gave all our children my last name. All the legal arrangements were made simultaneously by the same group of attorneys. There was no chance that our son could have been adopted by anyone else in the meantime… RobtheElder
Brian
Anyone interested in the laws and international politics surrounding surrogacy might want to check out this audio documentary from Radiolab:
https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/birthstory2018/
yup5hioop
This is really interesting. Crazy story at the start.
Pepe
Hi all. A number of you have commented that it is “selfish” to go the surrogacy route. I can see how it would seem that way vs. the supposed ease of adoption, but you’re perhaps only considering the situation in your country (i’m assuming majority USA?) My fiancé and I live in France, where adoption is practically impossible for gay couples. It’s not like the USA here, we’ve been told that our only options for adoption as a gay couple are children over 6-7yrs old with serious illnesses. How incredibly prejudice is that? So, before you judge a couples choice to go the adoption route – check the facts because in 2018 the single 2 countries that allow LEGAL international surrogacy for gay couples are USA & Canada (speaking from our perspective here in France) and as far as we know we have ZERO options to adopt a child legally anywhere in the world and bring them back to France. So we are forced to save hundreds of thousands of dollars to go the surrogacy route overseas. We would’ve loved to adopt and give a child a home, but currently that is not a possibility for us and society is to blame for excluding loving, capable parents such as myself and my fiancé!
RobtheElder
Greg… I’d be happy to entertain the prospect of adopting you. Why don’t you tell me a little bit of your history to help me decide. Please include why you think I’d be a good candidate as a father… RobtheElder
Prax07
Breaking News, Tom Daly seeks yet more attention, becomes tied at the number one rank for fame-whore with the Kardashians.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
He has the courage to come out and be a proud Gay athlete. He has actually accomplished something in his life. UNLIKE the attention crunt Kardashians.. How’s about you just go away and troll some other sites??
Kangol
Good for Tom Daley and his partner Dustin Lance Black. Whether they add to their family by surrogacy or adoption, the most important thing is that they shower their child with unconditional love and provide the best home and education possible.
yup5hioop
The only real issue is protecting women from exploitation. Economics aside if a woman wants to do this I don’t see the issue. Given statistics the number of gay surrogate babies will probably be lower than straight anyways. Adoption is great but not everybody is cut out for it. The US is in 7 wars, there are probably more than 25 million people being trafficked worldwide. Despite whataboutism I’m saving my outrage. Go Tom.
tham
Reading these, either there’s a lot of people n this site dropped out of school in the 4th grade OR are Russian bots…I’m thinking…the latter.
Vince
Why don’t you just come out and say it. Everyone that disagrees with me is a Russian bot. It would save some writing.
asby
I am one with them sharing every damn aspect of their lives…As long as they also document when they break up….
joesey
There’s nothing “huge” about Tom Daly :-p