![]() ![]() And in recent years, Xu adds, the growth of the Internet and civil society has changed attitudes and created more space for gay and lesbian couples in China. They don't want their children discriminated against or disadvantaged in the competition for homes, jobs and other resources and services because they are part of a minority group.Ĭhina's medical establishment declassified homosexuality as a mental illness in 2001. Parents' concerns, Wu argues, are mostly practical. What Chinese are afraid of is being different." "Our parents' generation thinks that homosexuality is a kind of sickness or something fearful," says Wu. Xu notes that in pre-communist days, before 1949, China's traditional society and religions were relatively tolerant of homosexuality. "If you get accepted by your parents, basically you solve most of your problems of being gay in China," says Xu Bin, the founder of Common Language, a Beijing-based LGBT rights group. "You've got to believe that you will make your dream come true, like making a baby," says Cai, reflecting on what was for her a personal victory against the odds. Cai's mother is changing the babies' diapers and getting them to bed. On a visit to Cai and Wu's apartment, the couple and their parents are cleaning up after dinner. Only heterosexual, married couples are allowed to have children and, if needed, get access to reproductive services such as surrogacy. However, same-sex couples are not allowed to marry in China, where policies and laws still favor traditional families. The birth is seen as a sort of milestone in China, which has become a more tolerant place for gay couples over the past nearly four decades. The lesbian couple is one of the first in China known to have used this form of assisted reproduction. sperm bank, had them put in her womb at a clinic in Portland, Ore., then returned to China to give birth. It wasn't simple.Ĭai took two eggs from Wu, added sperm from a U.S. The women went through in vitro fertilization in the U.S., and the children were born in China.Ĭhinese women Rui Cai and Cleo Wu gave birth to twins last month, following a successful in vitro fertilization. China does not allow same-sex marriages, and only married, heterosexual couples have access to assisted reproduction. It gives the transparency, which we can't offer always, and it gives a very clear structure," he said in his London office.Chinese lesbian couple Rui Cai (left) and Cleo Wu play with their twin babies, born last month. "I think it gives an element of certainty. laws are "archaic" and that many of his clients turn to Canada for surrogacy. Surrogate mom who has delivered 7 babies for others 'would do it all over again'Īndrew Spearman, a British fertility and surrogacy lawyer, said the U.K. A baby boy, his mom - and the woman who carried him."And in that time, if the surrogate decides to change their mind, you have no recourse," said Simon Berney-Edwards. considering the surrogate, and her partner, if she has one, to be the legal parents for the first six weeks of the child's life. That was because, they say, the surrogacy laws in their country are dated, primarily as a result of the U.K. They quickly chose to have the birth take place in Canada rather the U.K. Born just minutes apart, they have the same biological mother, but different fathers. ![]() It means Alexandra and Calder, now 21 months old, are twins but only half-siblings. ![]() Graeme and Simon Berney-Edwards sit with their Canadian surrogate, Meg Stone. ![]() That's also where they learned they could have twins and each be a biological father to one child by fertilizing half of their American donor's eggs with Simon's sperm, the other half with Graeme's sperm, and then implanting the embryos in the same surrogate. That organization connected them with a clinic in Las Vegas where in vitro fertilization took place. When they decided surrogacy was the way they would have a family, they reached out to a surrogacy organization that helped them understand their options. "It can be very surreal," his husband Graeme Berney-Edwards chimed in. They're here,' " Simon Berney-Edwards said in an interview at their home in Redhill, south of London. "You see them tearing around and they're having fun, and just for a moment, you just sort of step back and go 'Wow, this is it. Now, however, they have their twins, the result of an arrangement involving a Canadian surrogate and Canadian surrogacy laws they feel are more progressive than those on the books in the United Kingdom. As gay men, there was a time when they thought they could never have any of that. It can be a bit chaotic.īut Graeme and Simon Berney-Edwards wouldn't have it any other way. One pokes his dad in the eye and laughs before accidentally hitting his sister with a toy vacuum cleaner, causing her to wail. There are toddlers running all over the place. With two kids under two, the Berney-Edwards household in southeast England is a busy one. ![]()
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