On Being a Gay Parent Has Been Published!

On November 1st, 2007, known in the Christian Church as All Saints and All Souls Day, I received my advance copy of On Being a Gay Parent (Seabury Press, 2007). What a way to start off a festival, a holy day of the Church: by announcing to the world the very thing that many in the Church--save for God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit and a few other saints and sinners--cannot stand to have in their midst.

This book is dedicated to my children: Adrianne, who is now a sophomore in college (how time flies!), and my son Parker, who is now a freshman in high school. When I told them that I was gay, Adrianne was around seven years old, and Parker was around four years old. Much has happened throughout the years, and we seem to have all "adjusted" just fine...even with a very gay dad.

My partner Dean has hung around for now almost 12 years. We are amazed when we start counting up the years. As I say in the dedication of the book, he has lived up to the children's title for him well, "the gay nanny."

This book began when my friend Richard Rodriguez suggested that the next book I write be about gay parenting! At the time I had other books I wanted to explore and write, but the themes of this book kept on coming back and nudging me to write. After finishing a few other writing projects, and with much procrastination, I quickly wrote this book. Actually, I lived this book for many years before ever writing anything about being a gay dad.

What was wonderfully awkward about writing this book was this: I started writing the book in third person, writing about "those gays and lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people." It was cumbersome writing. One day I simply started writing about "us" and "our", and no longer about "them" and "their." A break-through! And the writing never stopped.

Those who tune in and read this blog, enjoy! Comment away! Let's have a real and great dialogue/conversation going!

And thanks for reading this new blog!

Brett