Tom Daley’s husband Dustin Lance Black has responded to criticism they have received about having a child via a surrogate.
Black, who revealed in March he and Daley were going to be dads, spoke about the many myths and misconceptions people have about surrogacy, including the idea that it is “abusive to women”, during an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live.
“The notion that people are being forced to do it for survival - this is not what surrogacy is,” he said on 27 March. “We love our surrogate. No human being is for rent, this is about relationships. She’ll be a part of our life for a very long time.”
Black was also forced to defend the fact he and Daley were two dads bringing up a baby, after a listener said “I don’t think two blokes can bring up a child”.
“There are all different kinds of families out there in the world,” responded Black. “Children are raised by single parents all the time. Those children - I’d like to claim myself as one, I was raised by a single mother who raised me incredibly well. Will it be important that our son meets women in his life? Absolutely.”
The couple discussed how they felt it would be “easier” to raise their son in the US, but felt like the UK was home for them. In the US, couples using a surrogate can become legal parents of their baby as soon as it’s born. However, in the UK, the surrogate remains the legal carer until parental rights are transferred through a parental order.
Michael, 42, and Jerome, 38, are another couple who had a baby via surrogate, they previously spoke to HuffPost UK about the legal issue of the parental order. Michael called the legal framework around surrogacy “outdated”, as the parental order could only be granted three months after birth. Up until then, their surrogate, Anna, was their son’s legal parent along with Michael because his sperm was used. Jerome was not. “We had just had a baby, but we were reminded of the fact this was a surrogacy process when we applied for parental order, three months after the birth,” Michael said.
Daley and Dustin Black have previously spoken publicly about other issues they’ve faced since announcing they chose surrogacy. Speaking on Fearne Cotton’s ‘Happy Place’ podcast in early March, the couple said one question they have been frustrated about being asked is who the biological father of their baby is. They are “adamant” they don’t ever want to know, because they are both the child’s parents. Daley said: “We’ll do our absolute best to try and raise our child the way our parents raised us. To be surrounded by love is the most important thing.”
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