“I feel really passionate about helping people realise their dreams of becoming a parent,” Marea Goodman, a midwife, author, and founder of queer parenting community group Pregnant Together, has told PinkNews.

Goodman, who has two young children of her own, always knew they wanted to be a parent.

“For a lot of queer people, or solo people, it can be hard to make that leap,” they said. “We don’t really have in our society a model for how you can become a parent when you’re not part of the heterosexual majority or coupled.”

Nonetheless, they believe “everyone deserves the right to become a parent”, and highlighted the importance of community and visibility, citing public figures such as Tan France and Wanda Sykes.

Sykes’ partner, Alex, gave birth to Olivia Lou and Lucas Claude, in 2009. The couple got married the year before. 

In 2023, Queer Eye presenter France shared that he and his husband Rob had welcomed their second child into the world. Ismail and Isaac were both born via a surrogate. The couple have been married since 2007. 

Over the years, same-sex parenting and LGBTQ+ adoption and fostering have increased, which Goodman attributes to people feeling “more free to explore and set their lives up how they want to”.

However, barriers, particularly in fertility care, remain.

“Fertility clinics arose out of a need to support heterosexual people who are experiencing infertility,” Goodman said, noting many of the centres still use non-inclusive language such as “husband” on forms.

Many expectant LGBTQ+ parents aren’t prepared for how long, expensive, or unsupported, the conception process can be, they went on to say.

They called for more-inclusive systems, centralised protocols for LGBTQ+ care, and greater recognition of non-gestational, transgender and non-binary parents.

The common thread among members of Pregnant Together is feeling “overwhelmed and alone”.

The virtual platform provides compassionate, identity-affirming support and expert-led education. “We don’t really have a home for queer and non-traditional parenting… that’s what I’m trying to create,” Goodman said.

‘I trust our communities to continue to thrive’

They criticised US president Donald Trump, who signed an executive order that proclaimed the US only recognises “male” and “female” and that these are “unchangeable”, as well as the UK government for attacks on inclusive language in healthcare settings. But they remain hopeful.

“We’ve always created alternate systems of caring for each other,” they said. “Pregnant Together is an example of that. I trust our communities to continue to thrive, even without mainstream support.”

With a surgeon who carried out the UK’s first womb transplant on a cisgender woman suggesting that transgender women may one day be able to give birth, Goodman added: “I know a lot of trans women [for whom] that would be such an amazing affirming experience.

“It’s not all rainbows and butterflies but my message is: if you want to become a parent, you can do it – and you don’t have to figure it out alone.”

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