CT Fertility gay couple, Farid Ali Lancheros and George Constantinou are featured in an article published in O Globo, Brazilian's largest newspaper, entitled "Transformação da nova família americana - Adoção por casais gays aumenta à medida que caem restrições legais" (Transformation of the Modern American Family - Adoption by gay couples increases as legal restrictions fall). Farid and George, who recently had their boy-girl twins born with the help of a surrogate an an egg donor, are interviewed along with an other gay couple on their respective yet different journeys towards becoming parents.
Although adoption has long been an option for gay couples (the other gay couple interviewed in the article had their child this way), increasingly couples such as Farid and George are chosing to work with a gestational surrogate in order to have better control of the child creation process and to have a better comfort level about the "history" of the child (ie: making sure that whilst pregnant the mother was taking good care of herself as well as the child she was carrying).
That said, irrespective of the way the child comes into the lives of these gay couples, adoptions by gay couples has increased significantly as legal barriers fall. A 2009 census determined that about 32,000 children were adopted by gays compared with 8,300 the year before. According to estimates by demographer Gary Gates of UCLA (University of California Los Angeles), the number of children and adolescents in families where the father or mother is gay reaches 1.2 million.
See below for translated excerpts from the article published in O Globo on November 5, 2011:
"I know we're breaking barriers, but all the love and support we are getting are measures of the social acceptance that a gay family can now receive. Our parents are euphoric, my mother will come from Colombia and pass the first months of the babies with us" said Farid Ali
Together for ten years, Farid, 47, and George, 35, owners of Bogota Bistro restaurant in Brooklyn, began to plan a family two years ago. The initial choice was adoption, but the two were suspicious about the lack of information about the health of the child and his biological family.
"It was too much of a risk. I was nervous about the idea of not knowing the history of the child, the possibility that she had suffered, not having been well fed during pregnancy, which can lead to lots of complications. Then came the idea of surrogacy" - says Farid Ali
See below excerpts from the original article "Transformação da nova família americana - Adoção por casais gays aumenta à medida que caem restrições legais" published in O Globo on November 5, 2011:
"Sei que estamos rompendo barreiras, mas todo o amor e o apoio que estamos recebendo são medidas da aceitação social que uma família gay pode receber. Nossos pais estão eufóricos, minha mãe virá da Colômbia passar o primeiro mês dos bebês com a gente" disse Farid Ali.
Juntos há dez anos, Farid, de 47 anos, e George, de 35, são sócios no restaurante Bogotá Bistro, no Brooklyn, e começaram a planejar uma família há dois anos. A opção inicial foi pela adoção, mas os dois se sentiram inseguros com a falta de informações sobre a saúde da criança e de sua família biológica.
"Era uma aposta muito alta. Fiquei nervoso com a ideia de não saber o histórico dessa criança, da possibilidade de ela ter sofrido, de não ter sido bem alimentada durante a gravidez, um monte de problemas. Aí surgiu a ideia da barriga de aluguel" conta Farid Ali.
