The Queer Family Podcast – LGBTQ Families & Queer Parenting Stories

| S14 EP4 | Gavin and David, hosts of the podcast " Gaytriarchs ," discuss their experiences with surrogacy and parenting as gay men. They share their journeys of finding egg donors and surrogate carriers, and the decisions they made along the way. The hosts also touch on the unique aspects of gay parenting and the need for constant conversations and decision-making, as well as the importa...

| S14 EP3 | Nat Vikitsreth is a licensed clinical psychotherapist and child development specialist, and host of the Come Back to Care Podcast. She shares her personal journey, growing up in Bangkok, Thailand, and embracing her identity as a trans woman. Nat's work goes beyond therapy; she offers vital support to the queer community by being the "trans auntie of the village, loving up on ot...

Mohsin, Matthew, and Dahlia are best friends and hosts of the podcast "Tiny Huge Decisions,” where they explore in depth the possibility of Dahlia becoming a surrogate for Mohsin and Matthew. They sat down with Jaimie to discuss the questions they’ve grappled with in the decision-making process, including the impact on their friendship, the legal and emotional aspects of surrogacy in the UK, a...

Mia Cooley, founder of xHood, joins Jaimie to discuss her journey as a queer parent and the work she is doing to support black and brown parents and intended parents. Mia shares her experience of having her first child with a previous partner and navigating co-parenting, as well as her journey to having a baby with her current partner. She also discusses the importance of representation and commun...

The Queer Family Podcast | S13 EP12 | Ed Center is a husband and father who humorously quips that, as two Filipino men, he and his husband defied convention in their journey to parenthood by adopting two wonderful white children. After their eldest child faced a profound mental health challenge during the pandemic, Ed embraced a more inclusive and mindful approach to parenting and learned better w...

The Queer Family Podcast | S13 EP11 | Cara Cochrane, also known as  caras_atl on social media, discusses her late-life coming out, forming a blended family, and how the challenges she faced in finding her identity prompted her to become the representation she so lacked during her Southern upbringing.   She also speaks about the media's lack of diversity, the intricacies of raising a child in a...

The Queer Family Podcast | S13 EP10 | Chelsea and Megan share their journey to parenthood as a trans woman and cis woman couple. They met online, u-hauled it (in true lesbian fashion), and quickly began their queer baby-making process. After trying the “natural” way for quite some time, they decided to switch to fertility treatments. After a long journey filled with insurance drama, unfair BMI bia...

The Queer Family Podcast | S13 EP9 | Trigger Warning: Miscarriage is mentioned in this episode. Sam and Brook, a married couple from Canada, share their unique journey of love, family, and fertility. They met through a mutual friend and reconnected after the friend's passing. Brook, who is transgender, and Sam, who identifies as AFAB pansexual, navigated their relationship while raising Sam’s...

The Queer Family Podcast | S13 EP7 | Bethany Grace Howe transitioned at the age of 47, after seeing an image of Kaitlyn Jenner on the cover of a magazine and realizing that she too, was trans. Suddenly and somewhat out of the blue, Bethany's true identity was painfully clear, and hiding it was not an option. Now she and her 13-year-old daughter Nola are here to talk about their experience as a...

The Queer Family Podcast | S13 EP7 | To live as his authentic self in his native Transylvania, Stefan would have been forced into bottom surgery and a hysterectomy, rendering him sterile. So like most trans guys in his country, he got his testosterone on the black market and lived on the DL. Now he lives in the US with his wife, and while the country is not nearly as inclusive as he was led to bel...

The Queer Family Podcast | S13 E6 BONUS | Michael and Matt have been in the process of creating their 2-dad family for quite some time and they're chronicling that process on their new podcast "Who's Your Daddy."   They sat down with Jaimie to explore their path from an initial foster-to-adopt plan to the world of surrogacy with an egg donor, and how they’ve tackled the many diffic...

The Queer Family Podcast | S13 Ep 5 | TW: This episode covers sensitive topics including sexual abuse, self-harm, and addiction. Please proceed with caution and consider your emotional well-being before listening. If you or someone you know is struggling with these issues, please seek help from a trusted professional or support organization. Your mental health matters. Danny tells us how falling p...

Digging deep into the "A" in LGBTQI"A". Aline Mayard is a single parent who happens to be asexual, aromantic, and nonbinary. They also host the Tribeca Award Winning podcast, "Free From Desire: Asexual In The City Of Love." Aline talks about their difficult path to accepting their Ace and Aro identity, challenges us to rethink what intimacy is, and to question why we're...

  The Queer Family Podcast | S13 Ep 3 | Kate Brooks is the author of "Transister, Raising Twins In A Gender-Bending World," an affirming and honest account of her young daughter's transition. Kate gives us a candid, straight, cis-gendered mother's perspective on what it was like for her to go from having what she thought were twin "boys" to ultimately having a son and a dau...

The Queer Family Podcast | S13 Ep 2 | Peggy Gillespie is the co-director of Family Diversity Projects, a non-profit that has created 10 different photo/text exhibits celebrating underrepresented folks over the years, the author of Authentic Selves, a mom to a nonbinary kiddo, and a self-described queer hippie from the 60s. When we tell you that this changemaker has been pushing boundaries and maki...

The Queer Family Podcast | S13 Ep 1 |   Lamalani and Laracarina 100% knew they didn’t want kids- until Lamalani came home one day and changed her mind. What followed was a wild fertility journey during Covid that included a tumor surgery, a difficult donor search, RIVF, IVF, a pregnancy that lasted way too long, a difficult birth, and a random and altruistic decision to pay it forward and do it al...

The Queer Family Podcast Pride Extravaganza! | S12 Ep 13 | What does Pride mean to you? Because we are all unique individuals, Pride means something different to each of us, so for this special PRIDE EXTRAVAGANZA Grand Finale, we've gathered a little medley of responses to this question from all of our Extravaganza guests. These answers will give you all the feels, y'all. Let them serve as...

The Queer Family Podcast Pride Extravaganza! | S12 Ep 12 | Eric and Tony Vaughn-Trainor’s (aka @mrvaughntrainor) path to becoming a family of four was marked by a challenging adoption journey and failed connections, leading them to switch to surrogacy. Through sharing their struggles on social media, they eventually found a surrogate who helped bring their twin daughters into the world, despite fa...

The Queer Family Podcast Pride Extravaganza! | S12 Ep 11 | Claire Wasserman (aka @clairegetspaid) sat down with Jaimie while in the midst of her queer family-building journey and spoke candidly about coming out after a straight marriage, finding true love, discovering her feminist side, and embarking on the roller coaster of queer baby-making with her wife. They delve into the details of her recen...

The Queer Family Podcast Pride Extravaganza! | S12 Ep 10 | Erik and Adam (aka the @mchusbands) shifted their family-building plan from adoption to surrogacy when their sister-in-law offered to carry for them. In another turn of good fortune, their best friend selflessly agreed to be their egg donor, and their twin baby girls were created. Realizing the lack of representation for gay dads like them...

The Queer Family Podcast Pride Extravaganza! | S12 Ep 9 |Brit and Sydney Sharon (aka @thesharonmoms) share their inspiring journey as Jewish queer moms who built their family through IUI and reciprocal IVF. They also reveal a surprising discovery about Sydney's dad being a sperm donor in his youth, leading them to connect with six donor siblings. The couple discusses the profound impact of the...

The Queer Family Podcast Pride Extravaganza! | S12 Ep 8 |Richard and Carlos, (aka @therealdadsofnewyork) are proud black, Jamaican dads who built their family through adoption and foster-to-adopt. Through their active presence on social media,   they have become a beacon of visibility, addressing the lack of representation they experienced growing up. Their powerful presence allows them to educate...

The Queer Family Podcast Pride Extravaganza! | S12 Ep 7 | Bret and Stephen (aka @broadwayhusbands) met in 2006 and began documenting their lives together on social media shortly after getting married. When they decided to go down the surrogacy path to make their family, they remained visible on their platforms as a way to inform others about the challenges and joys along the way. Taking it step by...

The Queer Family Podcast Pride Extravaganza! | S12 Ep 6 | Whitney and Megan (aka @whatwegandidnext) met on MySpace and started blogging about their lives together in 2009. What began as an effort to create a personal scrapbook of memories soon became a mission to provide the visibility they felt was lacking in mainstream media for LGBTQIA+ relationships. Fast forward 15 years, and Whitney and Mega...

The Queer Family Podcast Pride Extravaganza! | S12 Ep 5 | Brian and Alec Mazelin (aka @meetthemazelins) share their journey as a couple, starting with their online meeting during the pandemic and quick connection, leading Alec to leave Jamaica and move to Florida, where Brian and his son lived. They publicly came out to their families through a heartfelt engagement post on social media, receiving...