Three Continents, Two Fathers, One Donor: A Non-Puerperal Relactation Case Study

Introduction A woman was able to relactate 7 years after breastfeeding her children. She donated her expressed milk to her friends, a same-sex male couple, who had a child through surrogacy in the United States. She lived in London and shipped her milk to Hong Kong, where they lived. The infant thrived on the donated expressed milk received during the first 3 months of his life. Main issue This case is unusual because the woman was not breastfeeding at the time, which would have made expressing easier, and she was not adopting. She consulted a National Childbirth Trust Breastfeeding Counsellor and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant® who helped her explore non-puerperal relactation protocols. Management Her plan started 6 months before the birth and included the use of domperidone, frequent expressing by hand and with a hospital-grade pump. A breastfeeding specialist physician made suggestions on the dosage of domperidone. She donated a total of 35.06 L. She had the full support of her partner and family. Conclusion Non-puerperal induced lactation and relactation offer ways to make human milk accessible to all infants, particularly those from LGBTQ+ families in which no parent is lactating, as was the case with the same-sex male couple participating in this study. It is essential to disseminate the knowledge and skills needed to support non-puerperal induced lactation and relactation among all healthcare professionals involved.

The ECtHR’s first advisory opinion: Implications for cross-border surrogacy involving male intended parents

This article examines the content and scope of the European Court of Human Rights’s first advisory opinion as regards the practice of cross-border surrogacy in Europe. While the advisory opinion concerns the recognition of the legal parentage of an intended mother, this article considers whether the reasoning could be applied to male couples who avail of surrogacy. It is argued that the non-genetically related intended father in the male couple is in a directly comparable position to the non-genetically related intended mother in the opposite-sex couple for the purpose of legal parentage following surrogacy.

The Effects of Multiple Stigmas on Discrimination in the German Housing Market

In two online field-experiments (N1 = 336, N2 = 456) we investigated the effects of belonging to an ethnic minority, a sexual minority, or to both minority groups simultaneously on rental discrimination in Germany. We predicted that a Turkish heterosexual couple and a German gay male couple would receive fewer replies to their inquiries about a rental offering and fewer invitations for viewings than a German heterosexual couple. We also predicted that the intersection of two stigmatized identities would have beneficial effects and thus result in less discrimination of the Turkish gay male couple compared to the Turkish heterosexual couple. Chi-square tests revealed evidence of rental discrimination based on ethnicity, but not for discrimination based on sexual orientation; no evidence for beneficial effects of the intersection of two stigmatized identities was found. Implications for future research on discrimination of ethnic and sexual minorities are discussed.

“Lord of a Hawaiian Island”

This case study of a white male couple (Robert and John Gregg Allerton) on Kaua‘i from the 1930s through the 1960s investigates how their colonization of the island has tended to be erased in accounts that highlight both the supposed acceptance of their homosexuality by the island’s residents and, in turn, the couple’s generous philanthropy. Set against this narrative of what Mary Louise Pratt has called “anti-conquest,” I demonstrate that the Allertons’ lives on Kaua‘i were actually more in keeping with the history of western imperialism than most accounts acknowledge, emphasizing also their own innovative strategies toward making the island their own. The article examines both the specifics of the Allertons’ colonizing of Kaua‘i and, more importantly, how imperialism can be misremembered when the colonizers were queer, connecting that narrative obfuscation to myths about acceptance of gay men in Hawai‘i that live on today.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing in Counseling a Male Couple

This practice-based article discusses the use of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in counseling “Paul” and “Eddie” (aliases), a couple for 4 years who presented with what they identified as “communication problems.” Through the use of psychosocial assessments of the men’s personal histories, it was determined that Paul’s experience of feeling controlled and Eddie’s struggles to believe that he mattered in the relationship were linked to traumatic memories in each man’s childhood that related to his sexual identity development. EMDR was used to target the men’s traumatic memories, alternating between Paul and Eddie. Following each EMDR treatment series, the work was integrated by talking through how the reprocessed material integrated into the overall couple experience, leading to both men’s increased satisfaction in the relationship.