Gay Dad
David Leadain
Leadain has interviewed ten divorced (from their wives) out gay men with kids who are living in the UK today. Their various stories and reflections, excuses, reasons, decisions and insights allow us to grasp some idea of the immense difficulties of these men’s lives and the huge impact their extraditing themselves from an unsuitable marriage caused them, their wives and their kids.
There are one or two filler chapters thrown in about education around the law and the way other parts of the world treat gay men but mostly this is a collection of direct personal interviews with a feeling of confession about them, slightly voyeuristic, not wholly sympathetic but always honest and frank. Although I found myself putting the book down in annoyance with some of the answers, the books certainly allows us into the minds of gay men who hide their sexuality, marry women and chose to have families and the myriad ways they then deal, sometimes successfully, with the huge changes that coming out causes. It seems , at the end of the day – ironically enough – that honesty and respect seems to make things work better, although none of the men are challenged on why they may not have chosen this route earlier, but this is not the point of this book and the interview style allowed these diverse men to speak their own stories in their own words.
See more about the book and an interesting interview with the author David Leadain here:
With a candid foreword about his own experiences from Coronation Street actor (and gay dad) Charlie Condou this is a timely book reflecting the experiences of a sizable part of our complex LGBT world.
We all known a gay dad…it’s time to understand them a little more.
Out now, for more info or to buy the book see here:
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