I advocate, research, and teach about 2SLGBTQI+ families in Canada.

My projects explore how Canadian families and social inequalities converge. I investigate the complex pathways through which gay couples become parents and the complex ways gay fatherhood transforms gay men’s lives—and their relationship to the broader 2SLGBTQI+ community. Even with legal equality since 2005, my research finds that the path to gay parenthood is far from equal.

From a young age, I’ve always felt destined to be a parent—but I grew up seeing no examples of two men, or two people assigned male at birth, raising children together. Figuring out how to become parents, then, was no easy task. Over five years, my husband and I spent $150,000 pursuing gestational surrogacy. Our final attempt ended in the devastating loss of our baby.

Yet as one door closed, another opened: we were asked to become the parents of my biological cousin, a beautiful biracial Indigenous child. We welcomed him with open hearts, navigated adoption alongside Ontario and British Columbia child protection services, and finally became the family we had long dreamed of.

As a social scientist and a queer parent, I bring both professional and personal commitment to excavating the unequal landscape of contemporary queer parenthood. My life’s work aims to empower prospective and current 2SLGBTQI+ parents in Canada, with a special focus on remediating the many barriers and obstacles that litter pathways to queer parenthood.