Traditional marriage advocates have condemned a gay country music star and his partner after they were seen laughing in a viral social media video as they tried to redirect their surrogate-born baby when he cried out for his “mama."
The video, posted last Monday by country music singer Shane McAnally, 51 and captioned "23 week old homophobic baby," shows him and his partner, Michael Baum, playing with a baby boy, Texson Ray McAnally Baum, born via surrogacy last October.
Baum is seen asking the baby, “Who do you want, Dada or Pop?” The child begins to cry and appears to say, “Mama, mama.”
McAnally and Baum laugh, and Baum responds, “No, there is no mama.” Texson is not the only child the couple has had through surrogacy. They also have twins, Dylan and Dash, who were 12 at the time of Texson’s birth, according to People magazine.
Speaking from behind the camera, McAnally tells the child, “You have dada or pop — two choices.”
The video has attracted hundreds of thousands of likes and thousands of comments, many critical and others supportive.
Among the reactors is Katy Faust, founder and president of the advocacy group Them Before Us, which advocates for the rights of children to be raised by their biological mother and father. Faust, an Evangelical Christian, declared that same-sex marriage “destroys every facet of the natural family.”
“What is the natural family? A man and a woman make a baby,” Faust wrote, arguing that a home should include a mother and a father.
“For gay marriage to be possible, it must reject procreation as the central feature of the family. Instead, it centers adult identity and validation. That requires the dismantling of every one of those natural features of the family,” she continued.
Faust contends that same-sex marriage intentionally “denies children their mother or father … or both.” She also cited other same-sex couples who have used surrogacy, including political commentator Dave Rubin.
In 2022, some Christians and conservatives raised concerns after Rubin announced that he and his partner had children through in vitro fertilization and surrogacy.
Critics argued that surrogacy raises ethical concerns because it involves a woman agreeing to carry and give birth to a child for another person or couple, separating the child from his or her biological mother.
According to Faust, factors such as biology, having both a mother and a father, and sibling relationships are no longer central in same-sex parenting.
Viral video of surrogate baby crying 'mama' sparks controversy | U.S.
