Gay dads forum offers help

Gay dads forum offers help

Gay Dads Victoria will hold one of its biggest information forums yet in Melbourne next week for gay men interested in starting a family.
Gay Dads Victoria convenor Rodney Chiang-Cruise told Southern Star numbers have been building steadily over the last few years.
“We’ve already got 60 people registered so far,” he said. “It’s our fifth forum in four years and there’s been a fairly steady jump each year, but this is certainly the biggest forum we’ve held.”
The event is on Saturday, May 22 from 10am-1pm in Prahran and will cover local, US and Indian surrogacy options.
Gay Dads Victoria is one of the only organised groups in the nation providing up-to-date information on gay surrogacy. Chiang-Cruise said India is the burning question on everyone’s lips.
“India has become more affordable, so people who previously didn’t have the option of surrogacy financially … can afford the Indian option,” he said.
“About two years ago about 10 percent were using India and about 90 percent were going through the US. Now it’s 50 percent US, 50 percent India.”
Currently there are concerns that the Indian surrogacy market may close its doors to singles and gay couples, as the Indian government moves to regulate its IVF industry.
Chiang-Cruise said he doesn’t expect the surrogacy laws to pass this year.
However, he said it’s possible agencies could adopt provisions — like only allowing access to married or heterosexual couples — before any laws are passed.
Phil Copeland, 38 and his partner Sam Everingham, 42, who are expecting twins from a surrogate in India, told Southern Star their Indian surrogacy agency had no issues with their sexuality.
The pair have taken five years to start their family, after first looking at adoption and fostering.
“Adoption wasn’t going to happen in Australia … and then we looked at fostering and we went through the whole fostering course … but I had real issues with the co-parenting side of that,” Copeland said.
“Sharing the child with the parents, I just couldn’t deal with someone else telling us how to raise the child.”
Copeland and Everingham said Gay Dads Victoria was instrumental in providing the information they needed to go through the surrogacy process.
“We visited some other couples and found out how they did it … and just talked to them to see what they were doing,” Copeland said.
info: Email Rodney Chiang-Cruise at
[email protected] to
register your interest.

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3 responses to “Gay dads forum offers help”

  1. Hi Guys,

    I work as a patient coordinator at an independent agency and we deal with quite a number of same-sex parenting applications. I just want to say that there are lots of options out there. It doesn’t have to be US or India. I see that majority of the people can’t afford the treatment costs in the US and opt for treatment in India and end up not being happy with their contracts or the end results. I do know that there are a few places that work with US surrogates and US lawyers, yet have the IVF treatment abroad, dramatically reducing the fees without sacrificing the legal grounds.

    I am not providing this information with any expectations of monetary gains. This is basically my mission to spread the word out and let same-sex couples that there are options out there. I was walking the same road just recently and am now a proud parent. We deserve proper treatment at proper costs. I will be more than happy to assist and share any information you need for this journey. You can contact me on my personal email address, and I will be glad to provide assistance and show you some options to consider…

    Matt S.
    [email protected]

  2. Trevor Elwell and Peter West who were on 60 Minutes can also help anyone wanting to go to India. Facebook them.

  3. Congratulations Sam and Phil….twins on the way. Very happy for you guys.