ELTON JOHN’S SON GREETED WITH HOMOPHOBIA
The news that Elton John and his partner will raise a surrogate baby has been greeted with homophobia by some media around the world.
John and his husband David Furnish announced this week that a surrogate in California had given birth to their child, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, on Christmas day.
The New York Post seemed to mock the couple by publishing a report with the headline “Elton & wife proud dads”.
In an opinion piece published by the Daily Mail, consultant editor Andrew Pierce – who is himself gay and adopted – slammed the couple.
“…I can’t help feeling that his decision to become a father is another grotesque act of selfishness from Sir Elton, and that the child is a little Christmas bauble he and his partner have awarded themselves. How telling it is that he was born on Christmas Day,” writes Pierce.
While he says that he supports gay adoption, Pierce explains that “…it is the nagging suspicion that Elton — a man who is by nature an obsessive — has simply acquired a son to satisfy his latest fixation that I find repellent.”
Meanwhile, BBC television’s News at Six has angered the gay community in the UK by asking for comment on the matter from just one source – Stephen Green, from an anti-gay right-wing Christian group.
“This isn’t just a designer baby for Sir Elton John, this is a designer accessory… Now it seems like money can buy him anything, and so he has entered into this peculiar arrangement… The baby is a product of it. A baby needs a mother and it seems an act of pure selfishness to deprive a baby of a mother,” Green said on television.
The BBC defended is decision to interview Green, who supports the death penalty for gay men in Uganda. A spokesperson told PinkNews.co.uk that the interview was necessary for a “debate” about gay couples having surrogate children.
A Taiwanese online news spoof programme has also come under fire. Next Media Animation (NMA) has become popular for its video clips in which animated characters act out recent news in a satirical fashion.
In its coverage of the Elton John story, NMA depicts John and Furnish pushing the surrogate mother off her hospital bed as soon as she gives birth so that they can pose for pictures with the baby.
They are then seen playing with their child while wearing bondage outfits, putting a wig on the boy and then offering it a Ken doll couple to play with.
View the video clip below.
Elton and David – Parents. Congratulations to the happy couple! Without doubt, they have the resources to potentially raise a wonderful little human being! I also am sure, that at his age, Elton John’s priorities and needs have changed considerably – he thus could be doing this for all the right reasons.
However, reality must rule, and as a 43 year old biological father to an awesome 25 year old daughter, and an adoptive father to an amazing 4 year old son, it is necessary to point out that at 62, being a parent to a little boy is not easy. Boys especially, require a high level of physical energy, and constant attention. I know, at 43 I find it physically challenging, and while my partner and I have an amazing nanny, its his parents that he needs.
After a long day at the office, one does not have the option of handing baby to nanny! Also, weekends DO NOT belong to you. Life centres around your child, his physical and social life.
On the upside, being a parent is amazing, wonderful, spiritually and emotionally fulfilling.
However, there is one constant: IT IS NO LONGER ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR PARTNER, AND YOUR OWN NEEDS AND DESIRES – BUT THEIRS! AND IT IS LIFELONG!
Gay Parents. As a gay man, this is one “right” that I have a problem with. And I know that I am not the only gay/bi man among my friends who disagrees with gay couples’ “right” to raise children (through surrogacy or adoption). I still think that a child should have a male and a female parent. That is the child’s right.
Gay Parents. So, what about single mothers, single fathers, grandmothers raising their grandchildren, and the vast numbers of families headed by children, due to the loss of parents to HIV/AIDS? Your sentiments are honourable but misguided. They are no longer relevant in 2010.
Martin – So Wrong Of You…. Martin, you are misguided. I hope, not self-righteous. I was raised by my father, without a mother. Although I am gay, my brother is not ? assuming you might think this is the reason I am gay. All three of my siblings are not gay.
On the other hand, it is stupid for anyone to even dare to argue that that children are better off left to old age homes were they are parentless ?NO FATHER AND NO MOTHER. Which is better, Martin? In these old age homes, they are usually ? more often than not ? worse off. Maybe it is because you don’t know what it’s like to be an orphan and not to ever have a stable and real home.
Two parents is every child’s right. So we should abolish divorce …?
congrats. as a parent to my partners sons I object strongly to the internalised homophobia of certain gay people who have issues with their homosexuality.
There are many well adjusted children brought up in gay families as there are equally well adjusted gay children of striaght families.
This has been quite well documented in various studies.
Far to many straight , people have children without thinking of the consequences and the obligatons. With any surrogacy , much thought is needed and a conscious decision has to be made and discussed and in general this makes for much more thoughtful parenting skills.
Good luck to Elton and David .