Two males, country music singer-songwriter Shane McAnally and his husband Michael Baum, recently welcomed into their home a new son through surrogacy.
On April 13, McAnally posted on Instagram what was intended to be a funny video of his husband playing with their new son, asking him if he wants dada or pop. The baby, however, became upset and asked for mama. McAnnally and his partner just laughed it off telling him there is no mama, while the baby continued to cry.
The text at the beginning of the video reads “baby has 2 dads… chose neither,” and the post is captioned, “Who’s gonna tell him?” 
Fox News reports that conservatives expressed outrage over the video, voicing their opinions on social media. They highlight concerns regarding surrogacy and a child’s need for a mother while the two dads mock that need.
“The face of what Obergerfell has done to children,” posted Them Before Us regarding the distraught child.
The Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in the U.S. with a 5-4 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015.
“This is not the first time Tony winning musician Shane McAnally has made a joke out of his son’s instinctive desire for his mother, rather than two fathers,” posted Concerned Women for America. “Children deserve better than this.”
The comment section of the post has since been turned off, and McAnally’s account has become private.
Katy Faust, founder and president of Them Before Us, spoke with Jenna Ellis on American Family Radio. She states that gay marriage was never just about what happens in the bedroom.
“When you're redefining something as fundamental as marriage, it's going to have ripple effects,” says Faust. “The rings in that closest throw of that redefinition stone is children. Marriage and children go together.”
That is the very reason why the government, she says, acknowledges marriage and recognizes marriage because it has an interest in children and an interest in the next generation.
She explains how marriage and parenthood laws are tightly linked.
“We predicted — and now we've got 11 years of receipts — that when you redefine marriage, when you make husbands and wives optional in marriage, you make mothers and fathers optional in parenthood law,” states Faust.
She says that the outrage for this baby is deserved as people begin to realize it’s not just love that makes a family but “child commodification and mother deprivation makes a family.” And while many might give excuses for a baby having two fathers, Faust states others are beginning to stand up saying that every child needs a mother.
On X, Faust posted a picture of the baby’s distraught face, saying that it took surrogacy and Obergefell to produce that picture and that both should be dismantled for the protection of children.
“This has been going on legally under the gay marriage regime for almost 11 years, happening everywhere that commercial surrogacy has been legalized, and very few people have taken note,” Faust states.
The unfortunate shift
She says parenthood has shifted from a mother and father raising a child to the distribution of children and the government assigning parenthood.
Faust says the focus needs to be taken away from the adult and be given to the child, asking the question what do those two adults, that one man and woman, do for the child that nobody else does?
“Well, they give them maternal and paternal love. They also ground them their biological identity and anchor them to a kinship network that stabilizes their identity consolidation. They also happen to be statistically the most connected to, invested in, and able to protect the child,” Faust says. “And whenever there's an unrelated adult that's raising them, you know, risk of abuse and neglect rise.”
Those are the non-negotiables, she says, that are going to be true about the human child, regardless of what five Supreme Court justices say. Furthermore, she states that children should not be denied their mother and father in the name of adult equality.
