“Baby has 2 dads… chose neither,” reads the caption on the video recently posted by gay country star Shane McAnally. In it, McAnally’s husband, Michael Baum, asks the couple’s baby son, “Who do you want, Dada or Pop?”

When the boy calls out for “mama,” the two men laugh. “There is no mama,” says Baum, as the baby begins to cry.

Commercial surrogacy is a booming global industry. By 2032, the market is projected to exceed $120 billion.

Backlash to the clip was swift. To many viewers, there was nothing funny about the baby’s confusion; instead it was cruel and deeply disturbing.

Considering the costs

McAnally and Baum no doubt meant this as a lighthearted parenting moment, and not long ago, that’s probably how it would have been received. But the reaction to the video suggests that today, a decade into our nation’s legal, cultural, and technological push to reshape the family, more people are beginning to consider the costs of that transformation — most poignantly, the cost to the babies born via surrogacy and sold to same-sex couples, forever cut off from their biological mother or father by design.

Many of us have been raising the alarm about this for years, despite being dismissed as “homophobes” and “bigots.” To those just joining us, welcome. Below are a few concrete steps we can take to help these most innocent of victims.

1. Overturn Obergefell v. Hodges

Since the beginning of civilization, marriage has been understood as a union between a man and a woman, one that is inherently ordered toward procreation and family life, grounded in sexual complementarity, and oriented toward permanence and exclusivity.

It is only recently in human history that we have sought to question this assumption — first through the sexual revolution’s legal and cultural devaluation of marriage, and then through the Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Now that we have, studies have made it all the more obvious that we were right the first time: Children need a mother and father.

Research using the massive Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study dataset finds that children in single-parent and co-habiting homes fare worse overall on multiple outcomes, including rates of abuse.

Moreover, studies show that children raised by same-sex couples are significantly more likely to struggle emotionally, socially, and academically.

Traditional marriage is ideal for children — and for society. If we hope to restore it, the first step must be to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges

2. Ban commercial surrogacy

Surrogacy turns the creation of human life into a commercial transaction — a transaction that offers the children being bought and sold few legal protections.

It separates children from their biological mothers by design and often treats both women and children as means to an end rather than individuals with inherent dignity.

In commercial surrogacy arrangements, contracts often dictate the terms of pregnancy, birth, and custody — including how disputes over the child will be handled. Many agreements include provisions requiring the surrogate to follow the intended parents’ wishes in cases of fetal abnormality or multiple embryos, sometimes including abortion or “selective reduction.”

No surrogate can literally be forced to undergo an abortion. But in practice, the pressure can be significant. Refusing such a request may mean breaching the contract, losing compensation, facing legal action, or being drawn into prolonged custody disputes. In some documented cases, payments have been withheld or additional financial incentives offered to encourage compliance.

This creates a troubling dynamic: While the surrogate retains formal bodily autonomy, the structure of the agreement can place her under intense legal and financial pressure at precisely the moment a moral decision arises. The child, meanwhile, is treated less as a person with inherent claims and more as the subject of a negotiated outcome.

That tension — between autonomy in theory and pressure in practice — is one of the least examined ethical problems in modern surrogacy.

The silence is hardly surprising. Commercial surrogacy is a booming global industry. By 2032, the market is projected to exceed $120 billion.

Nonetheless, countries including France and Germany have summoned the political will to prohibit or heavily restrict surrogacy. The United States should follow suit. If we are serious about protecting children, we cannot allow a system that commodifies them before they are even born.

RELATED: Surrogacy ‘trafficking’? Unmarried Chinese couple in the US accused of massive baby scam — 21 kids placed in foster care

Blaze Media Illustration

3. Establish children’s legal right to a mother and father

Both the weakening of marriage and the rise of surrogacy can ultimately be traced to the same development: the tendency to prioritize adult desires over children’s needs.

As Katy Faust, founder and president of children’s advocacy group Them Before Us, points out, the “adult practicality” promised by gay marriage comes at the expense of children: “When marriage makes husbands and wives legally optional, mothers and fathers become legally optional, too.”

We all know intuitively that children have a right to be raised by their biological mother and father whenever possible. We must now codify this right into law, reshaping adoption and reproductive policy to favor the child, not the adults seeking a child.

This means we should prioritize placement with married mother-father households in adoption and foster care, ending policies that intentionally create motherless or fatherless homes — and risk reducing children to lifestyle accessories or status symbols We should require courts to consider long-term child outcomes, not just adult eligibility.

Unique roles

My heart broke watching the young boy in McAnally’s video cry out for his mother, someone he will likely never know. As a mother to both a toddler boy and a baby girl, I see firsthand the beautiful and distinct ways my husband and I meet different needs in our children’s lives. It’s easy to say, in theory, that kids need a mom and a dad. But it’s entirely different to witness, day in and day out, how deeply they rely on both of us in unique ways.

There are moments when my children come to me for comfort, gentleness, and reassurance, things that come entirely naturally to me. And there are other moments when they look to their father for strength, play, challenge, and a different kind of guidance that only he can provide.

Neither role is interchangeable. Both are essential. How many more children must suffer before we restore mothers and fathers as the foundation of family life?

​Adoption policy, Lifestyle, Gay adoption, Surrogacy, Obergefell v. hodges, Gay marriage, Shane mcanally, Defending the family 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) remain neck and neck in the Republican Senate runoff despite a massive spending disparity between the two campaigns.

Cornyn’s incumbent advantage is further boosted by the $8 million his campaign ended with in the first quarter compared to Paxton’s $2.6 million cash on hand. Despite Cornyn’s financial advantage, Paxton has maintained his lead over the sitting senator.

Talarico also boasts a major spending advantage over both Republican candidates.

Polling still gives Paxton a slight edge.

As of this writing, Paxton is averaging a 3.4-point lead over Cornyn, according to RealClearPolling. A recent poll from nonpartisan Texas Public Opinion Research even put Paxton at an eight-point lead over Cornyn just weeks from the GOP runoff on May 26.

Although the candidates remain within striking distance of each other, President Donald Trump has notably refrained from endorsing either Paxton or Cornyn.

RELATED: Jasmine Crockett claims voters were ‘disenfranchised’ following crushing defeat in key Texas primary

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

Although Paxton appears to be more popular with the Republican base, Cornyn polls better against the Democrat nominee, James Talarico. According to polling averages calculated by 270 to Win, Paxton polls just one percentage point ahead of Talarico, while Cornyn leads by two percentage points.

Talarico, who defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democrat primary, also boasts a major spending advantage over both Republican candidates. Last quarter, Talarico raised $27 million and ended with just under $10 million in the bank.

The runoff will be held on May 26, and whoever wins the Republican nominee will face off against Talarico on November 3.

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​Donald trump, Ken paxton, John cornyn, James talarico, Texas primary, Texas senate race, Jasmine crockett, 2026 primaries, Politics 

A Latina lesbian member of the Salt Lake City Council has been accused by four people of sexual harassment while she mounts a campaign to win a U.S. congressional seat.

Three of the accusers are elected officials, and all said they were subjected to unwanted sexual advances from Eva Lopez Chavez.

‘We cannot excuse behavior — past or present — that trivializes or undermines the seriousness of sexual violence, assault, and harassment.’

Chavez said through an attorney that she was “shocked” by the allegations, denied one interaction had ever occurred, and claimed nothing inappropriate happened between three other accusers.

“She is prepared to address them in any forum. She stands ready to submit to a polygraph test regarding these various allegations if requested,” reads a statement from her attorney, Greg Skordas, to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Three of the accusers said they told others about the interactions at the time, and the Salt Lake Tribune said they confirmed the claims. All the alleged interactions occurred before Chavez was elected to the city council.

The accusers said they went public now partly because Chavez was running for office in the U.S. Congress and had castigated another politician over crude jokes he previously made about sexual battery and domestic violence.

“Our communities deserve leaders who take these issues seriously — not just in rhetoric but in conduct,” Chavez said in a statement about Democrat state Sen. Nate Blouin. “We cannot excuse behavior — past or present — that trivializes or undermines the seriousness of sexual violence, assault, and harassment.”

The accusers said her statement ignored her own behavior against women.

One of the accusers claimed that Chavez “pushed me back against a pillar so that my back was against the wall and told me, ‘The only reason I still f**k men is because a woman hasn’t shown me what I really want.'”

The Tribune described in detail the circumstances of the other accusations against Chavez.

RELATED: Human resources study shows a stunning unintended backlash to the ‘MeToo’ movement

Lopez says in her biography that she is the eldest daughter of an immigrant family from Mexico and the first Mexican-American elected to the Salt Lake City Council.

She also is a proponent of abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to her profile on the X platform.

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​City council member eva lopez chavez, Eva lopez chavez sexual harrassment, Lesbian latina harassment, Democrat sex scandal, Politics 

A teenage substitute teacher was arrested Thursday over threats he allegedly made on social media against a high school in Loudoun County.

Hadyn Dollery, 19, of Chantilly was arrested on Monday over threats of violence at John Champe High School, according to a press release from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

Dollery was born a biological male but identified as a transgender woman. The sheriff’s office confirmed that he was booked as a male.

Police said they were tipped off about the alleged threat through the Safe2Talk app. He was taken into custody outside school grounds.

Dollery was charged with making threats of bodily injury and is being held at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center without bond.

Police did not indicate if students or staff at the school had been under any immediate threat.

Dollery was a non-licensed substitute teacher, but he has been taken off the available substitute list, according to Loudoun County Public Schools.

A WJLA-TV report said Dollery was born a biological male but identified as a transgender woman. The sheriff’s office confirmed that he was booked as a male.

WJLA also reported that Dollery was employed at Eagle Ridge Middle School.

RELATED: Loudoun County Public Schools claims the school board did not know details of sexual abuse allegations

The Loudoun County School District has been the scene of numerous controversies, the latest of which was the punishment of a student for asking why a biological girl who identified as a male was allowed in the male locker room.

In 2021, a 15-year-old male wearing a skirt was accused of sexually assaulting a girl in a vacant classroom of an LCPS school and had been accused of a previous assault.

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​Transgender violence, Teen sub teacher trans violence threat, Politics, Loudoun county schools, Hadyn dollery