6 Coolest Gay Celebrity Dads
From Neil Patrick Harris to Clay Aiken, these dads aren't shy about embracing fatherhood.
Bauer-Griffin. Being a parent is hard enough as it is, much less being a gay celebrity with kids. Ask anyone with children, and more likely than not they will admit being a parent isn’t easy. Now just imagine managing the stress of taking care of your child’s basic needs and nailing that Oscar role while finding the best surrogate mother possible or depending on the country, even fighting laws to have your marriage recognized in order to adopt.
Although they may have to overcome a few more obstacles biology-wise, gay celebrities are starting families of their own and are proudly showing off their little ones to whoever will listen. Perhaps it’s the fact that gay celebs do have to actively choose to have a child, whether through surrogate or adoption, that makes them so gung-ho about parenting. To honor those parents who have gone above and beyond, here’s a list of a few of our favorite gay dads.
Neil Patrick Harris. He may play a womanizer on How I Met Your Mother, but in reality, Neil is more of a family man. We first got wind of his baby craze when he tweeted that he was a father (via a surrogate) in October. Six months later, Neil is as devoted as ever.
And he can’t seem to stop sharing every happy dad moment. He recently took to his Twitter account to share his excitement about being a father with anyone who has access to the Internet. Proudly posting a picture of his twin boys, Harper and Gideon, Neil tweeted, "Relaxing on a Sunday afternoon. My heart is full of love."
Elton John. Sir Elton John does everything with flair, including parenting. He and his partner David Furnish welcomed their baby boy, Zachary, on none other than Christmas Day. After being denied adoption rights from the Ukraine due to his age and homosexuality (the Ukraine does not honor same-sex partnerships and requires marriage for adoption), Elton was overjoyed to finally start a family at 62 and said that his most important concern was "making sure the child knew he loved him."
And Elton and David aren’t giving up on Lev. Speaking passionately, Elton said, "It makes me cry. I will get him out. This is the boy who changed my heart, who planted the seed. I’ll never give up on him."
Ricky Martin. Although Ricky didn’t confirm his homosexuality publicly until March of last year, he wasted no time in having children—single or not. In December 2008 Ricky became the proud papa of twin boys Valentino and Matteo through a surrogate. He told People.com that he was dedicated to being a father, and was making do without a nanny despite being a single parent.
"I'm doing this on my own because I don't want to miss a moment," Ricky said during the first few months of becoming a dad. "I'm the one who changes the diapers, the one that feeds them, the one that bathes them, the one that puts them to sleep."
The pop star did admit to needing a personal assistant to take care of him during the whole ordeal—with two twin boys on his plate, someone has too.
Clay Aiken. Though the former American Idol contestant may not have been quite as vocal about fatherhood as others on this list, the birth of his son did give him courage to come out of the closet.
"I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that," Clay said (via People.com), about a month after his son was born.
And rather than go the route of adoption or surrogate, the singer and his good friend Jaymes Foster used artificial insemination to bring about son Parker Foster Aiken. More than anything, Clay strives to raise his son in a loving environment, which, in our opinion, makes him one of the coolest dads out there.
B.D. Wong. Actor Bradley Darryl, or "B.D." as he is more commonly known as, had twin boys with partner Richie Jackson through the help of a surrogate mother (Richie's sister, Sue Barez) in 2000. Heartbreakingly, his son Boaz Dov died immediately after birth, while his other son Jackson Foo battled for the right to live for two months afterwards.
Jackson and Boaz were both born 11 weeks premature, with Jackson weighting less than three pounds at birth. The baby was put on medication and placed on an oxygen tank to help strengthen his lungs. The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star has since written a novel, Following Foo, detailing the events of his child's birth. Quite an ordeal to go through for two people who, as Richie said, "simply wanted to be fathers."
Dan Savage. Controversial sex columnist Dan Savage adopted his son, D.J., with his boyfriend Terry Miller through an open adoption (which means D.J.'s birth parents can still contact their son). He went on to write an award-winning memoir, The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Get Pregnant, where he candidly chronicles what the adoption process is like for a gay couple.
Although the writer desperately tries to avoid being just another "boring parent," (and really, how can he be?) he doesn't quite succeed. For example, he still has typical parent concerns such as if his son will be teased at school, although maybe for different reasons than other parents.
"I expect there's going to be a sociosexual dynamic when he is in high school when people will say horrible things to him about why two gay men would want to adopt a boy," Dan told New York Magazine in 2000. "We intend to work very hard to make sure that's not an issue."
Know any other gay celebrity dads who should be on this list? Tell us your opinion below!