Daddy issues
Stu Oakley looks at one of the most divisive talking points within the queer community: parenting
To you, the word ‘daddy’ may conjure up images of Pedro Pascal staring deep into your soul with those rich brown eyes. For me, though, daddy has a very different meaning. As a parent to three young children, I hear it approximately 20,000 times a day — from breakfast through to bedtime — and after finally tucking them into bed I am about as far removed from a gay fantasy of a ‘daddy’ as you can be.
But at the moment being a gay daddy is somewhat unsettling. In Europe, we seem to be moving backwards rather than forwards, with Hungary allowing LGTBQ+ families to be reported to the authorities, while in Italy new laws that gave parenting rights to the gays look set to be reversed by the country’s new leader. And here in the UK, we have drag queens facing protests just for wanting to entertain children, while idiotic gay and lesbian groups and queer social media personalities are bullying trans people simply for being parents.