Dustin Lance Black claps back at homophobic comments around same-sex parenting

Dustin Lance Black claps back at homophobic comments around same-sex parenting
Image: Tom Daley with Dustin Lance Black, before the birth of their first child. Image: Tom Daley / Instagram.

Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black has responded perfectly to a radio caller who criticised him and husband Tom Daley for having a baby via surrogacy.

Black appeared on BBC Radio 5 to discuss surrogacy yesterday, when a caller said he disagreed with “two blokes” having a child, Pink News has reported.

“The only thing I don’t agree with is—it’s been eating away at me for a few years—is I don’t think two blokes can bring a baby up,” said the caller, who stressed he didn’t “have an issue with gay people”.

“You need the mother there. They are very different to us… they are very different, women.”

Black replied that diverse families do exist and thrive.

“There are all different kinds of families out there in the world, and for many different reasons—some of them tragic—children are raised by single parents all the time,” he said.

“Those children – I’d like to claim myself as one, I was raised by a single mother for some difficult reasons, and she raised me incredibly well.”

After speaking to more callers and addressing misconceptions, the Oscar winner had a query of his own.

“I have a question, and it’s one I didn’t know I would have to ask two months ago,” he said.

“It’s what is it about surrogacy that bothers some in the United Kingdom?

“In the United States, where we’ve been working with our surrogate, the reception was incredibly warm with almost no exception.

“Perhaps that’s because it’s been going on a bit longer, is understood and has legal clarity around it.

“But here, we heard some things that weren’t so friendly, which suggested there were some misconceptions about what surrogacy is. That, to me, has opened this window that has shone some light on how the legal framework here might not be as helpful, as humane or as family-oriented as it is where I come from.”

Black revealed that he and Daley will be raising their child in the UK, despite the legal challenges it will involve.

“We would like to raise our son here, but because of that we’re going to face some legal challenges in being considered the parents of our own child when we bring our son back to this country,” he said.

“I’m here today to say, I think that’s wrong.

“From the moment of birth [in the US] you are on the birth certificates, which you are not here. That goes for gay and straight couples.

“So it would be a much easier path if we decided to raise our son in the United States, but we love this country, and it’s home for us.”

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