I advocate, research, and teach about 2SLGBTQI+ families in Canada.

My projects explore how Canadian families and social inequalities converge. I investigate the complex pathways through which gay couples become parents and the complex ways gay fatherhood transforms gay men’s lives—and their relationship to the broader 2SLGBTQI+ community. Despite formal equality in law since 2005, I show that the Canadian social arena shaping gay fatherhood is far from equitable.

The American sociologist Judith Stacey once argued that gay men can be organized into three groups: refuseniks, situational parents, and predestined parents. From a young age, it is clear that I was predestined for parenthood. Yet in childhood, I saw no examples of two men—or two people assigned male at birth—parenting together. Figuring out how to become parents, then, was no easy task.

Without easy access to the means of reproduction, my husband and I had many options, but none were simple or straightforward. On our first attempt over five years, we spent over $150,000 to pursue gestational surrogacy. Our dreams and hearts shattered when our last transferred embryo produced the death of our baby in utero. With wallets lighter and hearts heavy, we faced the devastation of failure in surrogacy.

Yet at this door closed, another opened: we were contacted about becoming the guardians of a beautiful mixed-race Indigenous toddler. Without hesitation, we welcomed him into our hearts and homes. Through coordination with Children’s Aid Society in Ontario and the Ministry of Child and Family Development in British Columbia, as well as the support of our family lawyer, we soon adopted him and became the family we had all so long yearned for.

As a social scientist and a queer parent, I bring both professional and personal commitment to excavating the unequal landscape of contemporary queer parenthood. My life’s work aims to empower prospective and current 2SLGBTQI+ parents in Canada, with a special focus on remediating the many barriers and obstacles that litter the many pathways to queer parenthood.