myself. My name is Chantal Tapé and I am beyond thrilled to be the
newest summer intern here at Family Equality Council! On the heels
of last week’s victory in California, I can’t help but feel that
this is a tremendously exciting and pivotal moment for everyone
involved in the struggle for LGBTQ rights. I can’t say enough how
proud I am to be part of this organization and part of the movement
for equality and social justice for families of all shapes, sizes,
and colors.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about families and all of the
myriad ways that they’re formed. There are, of course, families
with a mom and a dad, families with two moms, two dads, single
parent families, families led by grandparents, extended families,
and families created by adoption, surrogacy, assisted reproduction,
and foster care.
While ruminating on all of these unique family structures, I came
across a very exciting post featured on the
Proud Parenting website. In January, a law was enacted in
California which allows the sperm of HIV-positive men to be used in
assisted reproduction. In response to this legislation, Growing Generations, a
surrogacy organization committed to helping gay and lesbian couples
start their own families, has created a new program specifically
targeting HIV-positive men. The new program allows HIV-positive men
to conceive, through surrogacy and egg donation, using their own
sperm.
Growing Generations President and Founder, Gail Taylor, who is a
lesbian and a mother of two, says of the program, “We are committed
to assisting individuals who have not always been embraced by the
mainstream in creating loving homes for very wanted children. This
includes gay men, single parents and now people with HIV.” The
staff at Growing Generations is able to test sperm samples for the
HIV virus before they are used. In many cases, the semen of
HIV-positive men contains no trace of the virus and thus is safe to
be used in conception.
Until fairly recently, for people living with HIV, the dream of
having their own biological children was just that—a dream.
Thanks to organizations like Growing Generations, this dream is
fast becoming a reality. This means that we are one step closer to
creating a world in which one’s ability to have a child is no more
dependent on seropositivity than it is on sexual orientation. This
means that there is the promise of hope (the unique hope that only
family can offer) for countless individuals living with HIV today.