The month of June commemorates the Stonewall Riots in the US. This constitutes the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement, which occurred in the US in June 1969. As a result, many pride events are held during this month to recognize the LGBTQ+ community.
The Fertility Hub’s coverage starts with the story of one gay man’s mission to have a family. He encountered many challenges but is now reaping the rewards.
One Italian gay man’s journey
We don’t often talk about adoption at The Fertility Hub. Adoption is a viable means of starting a family or enhancing it with a new member. The reward of raising a child is not dependent on the means by which a child arrives in your life. The story starts in Italy where Luca Trapanese, 41, adopted his daughter, Alba, in July 2017. He’d spent many years caring for people with disabilities as a volunteer in Naples.
But Luca, who is gay and single, initially struggled to adopt. This is due to Italy’s strict adoption laws that only allow single parents to adopt in certain circumstances. Speaking to the BBC he said, “I was told that I’d only be given a child with an illness, a severe disability or with behavioural problems. And I was OK with that.”
Antiquated rules for adoption
Let’s think about that for a minute. Luca may be sanguine about it, but is it right that single people, gay people, and disabled people should be routinely categorized and dealt with in this way? It’s one thing for individuals to make judgements, and one can forgive human nature where ignorance comes into play. But running state adoption agencies according to distorted beauty pageant rules seems so very last century.
Luca was unfazed. He had personal knowledge of the joys that children with health conditions and impairments can bring. Since he was 14, he has worked and volunteered with organizations that help children with special needs.
He was eventually matched with Alba, who was 30 days old at the time and had been abandoned by her birth mother. As a newborn, Alba was placed for adoption because she has Down Syndrome. By the time she was a few weeks old, she had already been rejected by 20 families.
Not by Luca, though. He said, “When I first held her in my arms, I was overcome with joy. I felt she was my daughter straight away.”
These days Luca shares his journey with Alba on Instagram with nearly a quarter of a million followers. He uploads heart-warming photographs that show the father and daughter duo playing together in parks and at home. As such, they demonstrate a new kind of family in the mainstream, irrespective of agencies and authorities that are behind the times!
Luca and Alba
You can follow Luca and Alba on Instagram.
