Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More

Daddy Squared: The Gay Dads Podcast looks at gay rights and fatherhood options in Argentina. We talked with Argentinian LGBT activist Pablo Fracchia to get a taste of what it’s like being a gay dad in Argentina, and researched options for gay men who want to become dads.

Pablo Fracchia signed up to adopt a child in 2017, and after two long years of waiting he got a phone call from a family judge.

The judge matched him with Mia, a little girl who suffered with a severe gastrointestinal condition, needed serious medical attention and her biological family was unable to provide it, so she was sent to an institution for children with health issues. Fracchia adopted her after she was living in the hospital for a year, alone. His story was told all over the world.

״It’s been a crazy year,” Pablo admits on Daddy Squared Podcast. “The article came out last year in Argentina for our Diverse Families Day, the newspaper wanted to make an article about diverse families, they contacted me and for the last year it’s been crazy.

“A lot of people contact me through social media and I’m trying to [answer all the questions about my story]. There’s a lot of misconception about adoption in Argentina, about this process that used to be a very complex, but was simplified over the years so a lot of people ask me questions, I became some source of information and since I’m also a social worker and work on LGBT issues, to me it’s a way of activism by itself to help people to achieve their parenting dreams.”

The most inspiring detail in Pablo’s story was his decision to adopt a child as a single man, a decision that according to him wasn’t easy to make.

“The first thing I did when I decided to adopt on my own was to gather my family and tell them you know I’m making this life decision and I’m not going to be able to do it if you’re not supporting me,” Pablo tells us. “I needed to know that they were going to be by my side and of course they were absolutely on board.

“I was thinking that it was time to break the idea that in order to have a kid you have to be in a relationship. I worked that with my therapist, and said ok let’s do it.”

Despite the acceptance of the law in Argentina in regards to LGBT people, visibility of LGBT parents makes life for LGBT families in Argentina a lot better. People like trans actress Florencia De La V, gay dancer and TV Judge Flavio Mendoza, and trans comedienne Lizy Tagliani had famously have gone through surrogacy in the United States and are outspoken about their families.

“In a way, traditional families are still a thing, even if statistic says that they are a minority,” Pablo says. “40% of the families are traditional, the rest are a wide variety of combinations, so even if they are minority, representation is still a thing, and it matters a lot.”

Adoption for Gay Dads in Argentina

Differently than other countries, in Argentina all of the adoption process is done through a family court. Depends on your province, you have to go to the justice system in your province. Print it and present it to family court to open the file process of interviews of social worker and psychologist the judge oks you to become a parent.

According to Pablo, most often than not the process of adoption in Argentina is slowed down by a lot because of conditions intended parents have about what kind of child they’d like to adopt. “There’s a difference between what adoptive parents are expecting and what kind of kids are in the system,” he says.

Surrogacy for Gay Dads in Argentina

In Argentina there seems to be a legal vacuum in regards to surrogacy. It is not prohibited, but neither is it regulated. According to Argentinian Press the first the first gay couple to have a child by surrogacy in Argentina was in 2015.

After the baby is born, it is discussed in court on who the legal parents are going to be. There are known surrogacy cases where the judge has decided against the intended parents after the child was born. Buenos Aires recommends that judicial authorization be carried out prior to starting the treatment.

In August 2017, from a surrogacy case, we get a new judgment that warranty the filiación of any baby born in Ciudad de Buenos Aires from surrogacy, issuing  the birth certificate with both parents (regardless family conformation) as a regular birth certificate. Anyone has a right to this, but the only restriction is that the baby must born in Ciudad de Buenos Aires CABA, for the rest of Argentina must go through legal procedures. [Thank you Federico from LGBT Argentinian Federation for this info!]

Co-Parenting for Gay men in Argentina

There’s not much info about becoming gay dads through co-parenting in Argentina, however, co-parenting matchmaking websites from other countries allow Argentinian men to set up a profile and find co-parents in their area. Good examples for that are co-padres.net and coparentalys.com

Men Having Babies

On Surrogacy compensation: Our position is that contrary to what happens in Canada and the UK for example, that surrogate compensation should be something that we celebrate but also able to explain. We believe this is a restitution for the burden of pregnancy. A surrogate goes through some physical discomfort, the surrogacy and the pregnancy distrust their family lives and they are undertaking some risks. Those are burdains that should be compensated. This is not to mean that the surrogate works for us, it doesn’t mean that she rents her womb, it doesn’t mean that she gets paid x dollars per hour of carrying a baby and it certainly doesn’t mean that she gets paid for the baby, and the compensations should be independent of whether there’s a birth of a healthy child at the end.

Our Guest: Pablo Fracchia

Pablo is a prominent Argentinian gay activist and social worker. He has been working with the LGBTQ+ Federation of Argentina and is outspoken in the fight for human rights to establish marriage equality. He became famous in Argentina in a story that was republished all over the world, after he adopted a girl, Mia, who was living in a hospital for a year, as a single dad.

Organizations

Gay Dads in Argentina: Related Articles and News

Episode Credits

Co-Hosts: Yan Dekel, Alex Maghen
Guest: Pablo Fracchia
Opening Theme: Hercules & Love Affair, “Leonora” buy here
Articles Related to this episode:
Hit it TikTok
Pablo’s Choice for Argentinian Gay Icon: Moria Kasan

Listen to previous seasons of Daddy Squared
Join our Facebook group
Connect with us on Instagram