Valentine’s Day Readers’ Stories
Editor’s note: This is one of five stories written by our readers, in honor of Valentine’s Day.
This story is true. But I won’t share names to respect my friend’s privacy. My friend, a gay man, offered to be a sperm donor for a lesbian couple. He was very good friends with the woman who chose to be the mother. Well, somewhere during her pregnancy, she and her partner broke up.
My friend, who was really only intending to donate sperm, just could not bear the thought of his friend being alone. He knew that she could not make ends meet financially. Plus, she was going to have twins.
This is a man with a heart of gold. He worked as a caretaker for disabled adults, sang in the church choir and gave of his heart and belongings to everyone.
My friend decided to quit his job, sell his house and move all the way from Wisconsin to California. To live with his friend and be a stay at home dad.
That’s right. I remember his tears. He was not going to let his children grow up without two loving parents and a stable home. He gave up his whole life here.
His home was an apartment building bought using a city loan because he rented to disadvantaged families. He had to live in the building or his loan payments would go way up. He was very afraid that he would not sell his home. So he decided to sell many of his personal belongings to raise money. Many treasures from when he was a small boy, a teen, a young man in the military. He set up an Amazon fundraising account, he “sold” a look at ultrasound photos of the twins.
He was lucky and he was able to sell his apartment building. Fairly amazing given how poor the housing market is here right now.
I received an email from him a few days ago. The twins were born on December 30th. He sounded ecstatic, scared and grateful.
What is love? Not romantic love, not infatuation. Just love. What is it? It’s beyond gender, age, religion, race, politics, demographics.
This is love.
We’ll never know for sure if there is a God. But we can each be an angel. To someone. Just once. For a moment. Or for a lifetime.
The new family is doing just fine. Thanks for asking.
geekgirl, Jude, is a straight woman, a mom and has been married for 32 years to the same wonderful man. She believes in Buddhism and attends the United Church of Christ. She is a molecular biologist, her best friend is a lesbian, and she believes that every human deserves equal rights, respect and a life free from hate, fear and discrimination. The only thing she hates is pickles. Her science blog can be found at LGBT Latest Science.