Being HIV positive and wanting to be a dad are not mutually exclusive situations. Gays With Kids explain how these factors come together.
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To commemorate World AIDS Day today, we’d like to remind HIV-positive gay men that your HIV-status does not prevent you from realizing your dreams of fatherhood.
If you’re HIV positive, we encourage you to read these two articles that we’ve published in the past. They will inspire you and help guide you on your own path to becoming a dad.
Gay Dads Talk About Being HIV Positive shares the stories of five different gay dad families with HIV-positive fathers. While the journeys to HIV and fatherhood differ greatly among these dads, there is one common theme throughout: Each of these men knew they wanted to be a dad and, because of their status, they had to push forward, sometimes digging into parenthood with unparalleled fortitude.
Positively Dads details the process that HIV-positive men can take to become biological fathers. The article highlights the incredible work of the Special Program of Assisted Reproduction (SPAR), an international program designed to protect surrogates and babies from becoming infected during fertility procedures that use sperm from HIV-positive men.
To date, the SPAR program has helped approximately 200 gay couples achieve their family planning goals with all surrogates and babies testing negative for infectious disease. The SPAR program is part of the Bedford Research Foundation, a not-for-profit laboratory researching Stem Cell therapies for potential cures to infectious diseases like HIV.
Originally appeared on Gays With Kids.
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Photo: Flickr/2011 Caribbean HIV Conference