“Mom/Not Mom/Aunt”

Jerry Mahoney writing in The New York Times: “After five loving, fulfilling years with my boyfriend, Drew, I suddenly found myself online, looking to meet a woman. … Together we had a decision to make. One of the strangers on this Web site could end up contributing half of our child’s DNA. … We’d been instructed by our surrogacy agency not to use the ‘m-word.’ ‘This child will have two fathers,’ the staff member scolded. ‘He or she will have an egg donor and a surrogate, but no mother!’ Whatever you call these young women, there’s no shortage of them. For all those who are desperate to stop gay couples from adopting, there are others who are eager to help us down a more complex path to parenthood.”