Life

These two-dad families will warm your heart this Father’s Day

Here's to all the dads out there.
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Chasten (left) and Pete Buttigieg (right) holding their newborn children
The Buttigieg family Photo: Instagram

In honor of all the dads out there, we’ve assembled a list of some of our favorite two-dad families.

These dads met, fell in love, and had children. Some kids were adopted, others came into the world via surrogacy. Some couples got married first, others didn’t. Some dads share parenting duties with a mom.

Related:

Today is LGBTQ Families Day so we’re celebrating some of our favorites.

To honor this day of celebration, giving, and Pride, here are seven LGBTQ+ families sharing their love and joy every day.

If all that sounds familiar, it is. These are families are just like so many families who came before them. Except these kids have two dads, and if you asked, they’d probably tell you it’s pretty cool.

Here are 10 of these happy families to warm your heart on Father’s Day.

Cheyenne Jackson & Jason Landau

The American Horror Story star and his husband Jason Landau, who met at a 12-step meeting in 2013, became first-time dads to twins in 2016. Willow and Ethan were born via surrogacy. Jackson posted a beloved video earlier this year about his kids coming out — as straight.

“We were eating dinner and out of the blue, Willow says, ‘I don’t think I’m gay,’” recounted Jackson. Then their son added, “Yeah, I’m not gay either. But I want to go to the parade.”

Terrell & Jarius Joseph

These Instagram influencers say they were the youngest Black gay couple to conceive via surrogacy. At 22, they had twins, and have long shared their lives with their 360 thousand followers. They also recently celebrated the birth of their new baby daughter.

Ricky Martin & Jwan Yosef

The “She-Bang” singer had twins, Matteo and Valentino, via surrogacy in 2008, and then added to his brood after marrying Syrian-born painter Jwan Yosef in 2017. The couple welcomed daughter Lucia Martin-Yosef to the family in 2018 and son Renn Martin-Yosef in 2019.

Dennis O’Hare & Hugo Redwood

True Blood and Milk actor Dennis O’Hare and his husband Hugo Redwood first met their 12-year-old son Declan at five days old, when he was placed in foster care with the couple. Three years later, in 2014, they made the arrangement permanent with their son’s adoption. “We have always been a family – the legal system just caught up,” O’Hare tweeted afterward. The couple received a Let Love Define Family award at the annual Raise a Child gala in 2014.

Sir Elton John & David Furnish

The legendary piano man and husband David Furnish had two children via surrogacy: Zachary Jackson Levon, born on Christmas Day in 2010, and Elijah Joseph Daniel, born January 11, 2013. A year later the dads wed, nine years to the day after they became one of the first couples in the UK to form a civil union.

Neil Patrick Harris & David Burtka

Actor Neil Patrick Harris and husband David Burtka became dads to twins Harper and Gideon in 2010. The couple, who married in Italy in 2014 with fellow gay dad Elton John playing the reception, share their high-rise family life via Harris’s Instagram.

Rufus Wainwright & Jörn Weisbrodt

In February 2011, singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright and partner Jörn Weisbrodt welcomed daughter Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen to the world with mom Lorca Cohen, daughter of famous singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. The 12-year-old’s mom and dads are co-parenting.

Greg Berlanti & Robbie Rogers

The Love, Simon director and his soccer star husband welcomed a son, Caleb, into the family via surrogacy in February 2016. Their daughter, Mia Barbara Rogers-Berlanti, followed in 2019. Berlanti is the creator of the groundbreaking gay soap Brothers & Sisters. The couple married in 2017.

Shaun T. & Scott Blokker 

Celebrity fitness trainer Shaun T. – the body and brains behind workouts like Insanity, Hip-Hop Abs, and Cize – welcomed twins in 2017 with his husband Scott Blokker. Now the couple shares their love (and lots of kid pics) on Shaun’s wildly popular Insta.

Pete & Chasten Buttigieg  

The current transportation secretary and former presidential hopeful announced with his husband Chasten that the couple had become parents in August 2021. Their adopted fraternal twins, Penelope Rose and Joseph August, could become some of the world’s highest-profile children of gay dads as their fathers plot a course that may land them in the White House one day.

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