- I am my authentic self,
and I'm also the parent
my children need me to be for them.
(soft music)
We've been married for 13 years now.
- We've been together for 15 years.
- We have two children,
Jonathan and Jeanette,
10 and eight years old.
- We have three kids.
So, we have four-year-old twins and an eight-year-old.
- Family means to me,
my two dads and my brother.
- Mama and Mo-pen and Bella.
- We've actually been married for two years,
this will be year number three
'cause we were just allowed to get married a few years ago.
- Before then, it was like, we would call each other wife
and I would be waiting for someone to be like,
"you can't do that" which people would say.
- Because at the beginning,
we were kind of just making it up
and then it was kinda like,
yeah that's actually what it's called,
we're actually married, and she's my wife, yay.
- Yay.
- Family is at least two people
who can rely upon each other.
- Most people don't have two dads or two moms.
- No one in my class does.
- What?
- One of the things that I remember
when we first had our children,
was when we'd be out in public,
the stares that we would get.
- The struggle of, sort of how people view you is,
it's a battle everyday.
And funny enough, people will really, like, in the elevator
ask you questions about your family and your life.
- I've also taught my children,
not all questions come from a bad place,
sometimes a person will ask a question they just don't know
and they want to know.
- A family is a big sister or brother
and a mommy or a daddy. - [Boy] And a doggy.
- They love us, they want to take care of us
and they want to be with us.
- I think in some circumstances
they will have it harder in life,
but in other areas, I think they're gonna be stronger.
I mean, who better to parent you,
than people who've had to persevere their whole life.
- For them, you know, what they have is their norm,
so I don't know that they would say anything
more different than any other kid.
- I'm lucky to have my momma and my M-O and my siblings.
- We are crazy, we are dinner and a show.
We're never boring.
- Whenever we're at, like, my friend's house,
my dad always like starts dancing
and he always makes everybody laugh.
- DeSean, he wants to always have, go shopping,
dress up and, always, he wants to have fun
with me and Jonathan all the time.
- My children will be prepared to deal with the world,
they'll be prepared to deal with people
who will embrace them and they'll be prepared
to deal with people who won't embrace them.
- You can get married, you can have kids,
you can have all these things.
- It's the best feeling in the whole wide world,
to have that experience.
- There's no one I would rather parent with,
especially as a gay parent, other than Joel.
(soft music)
(swishing, squeaking)