This summer, I was finally able to legally marry my partner in our home state of California. After 14 years, it was fulfilling to be surrounded by family and pledge a lifelong commitment to the man with whom I'll spend the rest of my life. It's been a long road to marriage equality, and it seems we're still only halfway there.
For the last two decades I've been on another fulfilling journey with our community. It's made fewer headlines than our fight for marriage rights, but it's been so important for so many families just now finding that legal recognition.
Almost 20 years ago, I was approached by a young gay couple about having a baby through surrogacy. The future fathers wanted their child to share their genetics by combining the sperm of one partner with the eggs of the other partner's sister. Their neighbor had agreed to be their surrogate and carry the pregnancy.
This was new ground for me: I had never been approached by a gay couple interested in having a child through surrogacy. It was a new frontier for the entire reproductive community. In the early 1990s, same-sex marriage and family-building were pipe dreams, something not even fantasy movies would touch on.
At the same time, I was inspired. Even as a gay physician I had struggled with leaving behind the dream of having kids because I was gay. During that time, part of a gay man's acceptance of his sexuality had included giving up the idea of having kids. For both my parents and me, it was a hard truth to accept.
Then along came this couple with a vision for a family I thought wasn't possible. I was inspired, honored and impassioned to help these two young men build the family they so very much wanted.
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