So you want to become Moms!
Monday, August 17, 2009 at 8:13PM Good for you and welcome to the club (they don't call it a gayby boom for nothing!). More than 270,000 children are being raised by same sex parents in the US and your little one will be adding to the ever growing and loving LGBT community(1/3 of lesbian couples and 1/5 of gay couples have children). When we decided to have a baby we had been together for 13 years. Our friends knew us as a couple, and a fun one I might add. Our level of responsibility extended to car maintenance, bill paying,who was going to pick up dinner, etc. None of our immediate circle of friends had either the desire or the opportunity to parent and we thought we would kind of go through this alone.
One week last year, we were called by three different sets of college friends, none of whom we had spoken to in a while. Each,in that same week, began the conversation with"You'll never guess what we're doing!" My reply, the first time in jest, was "Trying to get pregnant!" Followed by "Wow! How did you know?" "So are we!". We spent hours talking about sperm, doctors, lawyers, room colors, boys vs. girls, what the grandparents think about it...
Once you decide to have a child it's important to find out who your friends and family are. The people who will stand by you are the best resource a new family has, regardless of orientation. Our son has a ton of "aunts", and a few "uncles"too", who we consider as part of our family because they love him and have helped us out more than once! We are also very fortunate to have very supportive families. In my case, it wasn't until the baby was inevitable (we were nearly 6 months pregnant) that they came around,but they love him unconditionally and think he's the best grand baby ever.
If you do not have a close group of friends or family you may be surprised to find that your community has a gay family group, we have the MEGA Family Project in Georgia. They sponsor events such as the "Maybe Baby Seminar" where people just beginning to think about having a family can go and listen to the many options and resources, including legal, available to the LGBT community.