Thoughts on The New Normal

Tonight premieres NBC's take on surrogacy, The New Normal.  Brought to you by the folks that brought you Glee, The New Normal highlights David and Bryan (a gay couple who have decided to pursue surrogacy) and their surrogate, Goldie, and follow the journey to parenthood.  There's a requisite woman-bouncing-on-a-man sex scene for the ex (briefly, and not much skin shown- It *is* NBC, after all), over the top stereotypes, a bigoted grandma and adorable daughter, and a "uterine terrorist" for the first surrogate Bryan and David meet.  Even with all this, the pilot is worth a watch, and I have hopes that they can fix the mistakes. 
The show has a lofty goal- to try and make families headed by same-sex couples more widely accepted and understood, and bring surrogacy into popular culture conversations.  To quote a friend of mine who is a father via surrogacy- "I think even if they get it partly correct it will help. Look at modern family. It's largely based on stereotyping but at least it's gotten people to talk about families like mine. :-) A step in the right direction! :-)"  And that shoot-for-the-stars-reach-the-moon attitude has worked enough times in the past, there's no reason to think it won't this time.  
Really, the more we talk about this, the more we get alternative families out in the public, the better we are because we get closer and closer to fully accepting them as just another form of family that picks up the thrown peas one at a time like ourselves.  If you're wondering about the possibilities, or have been a part of alternative family building, then you might want to weigh in on your experience over at Living the New Normal on Facebook.  That page is put together by the same organizers bringing about Men Having Babies, where I'll be speaking as part of a panel on September 22nd.  Follow along, find information, and make your voice heard.  

Love is Love, Family is Family.  And it's time everyone understood that.