Photo: The Morning Show
Legal history has been made after it was ruled that three dads could appear on the birth certificate of a child. The 'throuple' now have two children.
The children were born via surrogate mothers and donated eggs which were then fertilised by the men, though it is unclear which of the men is the biological father.
Ian Jenkins, Alan Mayfield and Jeremy Allen Hodges are in a polyamorous relationship with one another, meaning that they are just like any couple, but there is three in the relationship instead of two. The acceptance of this sort of relationship is a legal first in the United States.
Iain and Alan have been in a relationship with each other for 17 years and a relationship with Jeremy for 8 of those years.
Ian, who is a medical doctor, told Huff Post:
"One of [Jeremy's] friends offered us the embryos they had left from making their family through IVF but couldn't use. We had the option to adopt the embryos and make the decision to raise a unique family. We did have a slight attention to the fact that our kids might be perceived differently. We didn't want them to become a target of teasing or bullying or online abuse. We've had zero pushback from anyone in our professional and personal lives. Our oldest now is in preschool, and the other parents and kids are like, 'Cool! Tell us that story.'"
Speaking to The Morning Show, Alan, stated:
"The big challenge for us was the legal challenges. So with surrogacy you have to have a parentage order from the court, declaring who will be the legal parents. At the beginning we weren't sure that we could all three of us on the birth certificate, so it became a court process. We argued in court - it was a pretty interesting, tense courtroom scene. At first it seemed we were not going to be granted that, so we asked to speak in court and pled out viewpoint and the judge ultimately changed her mind and granted us legal parentage for our child before she was born."
Gay 'throuple’ who created legal history after being allowed to name three dads on their children’s birth certificates speak out about their unique family 👨🏻👨🏻👨🏻👶🏻👶🏻 pic.twitter.com/1rDF0p2Fi3
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Their inspiring story has now been turned into a book by Ian and is called 'Three Dads and a Baby'. He hopes that telling their story will open people's eyes to different relationships and how happy healthy children can grow up in many different family structures. He says:
"We wanted everyone to know that love makes a family and families may look different but if you care about your kids and you're doing everything you can to give them the best possible childhood - that's what matters."
[h/t: Ladbible]
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