So the big Oprah interview aired last night. And, if it had been on network TV, it may have been one of the most groundbreaking moments for LGBT visibility. I mean, there was Oprah, barefoot in the kitchen with two photogenic gay dudes! (We're still not sure why EVERYONE was barefoot in the episode, but we assume it was to show how laid back and cool and comfortable everyone was with one another. Or maybe there was a pedicure competition that we weren't privy to?) Since it was OWN, and we're not really sure who watches it or how many people, we hope that it reverberates in special ways since there were some intimate and revealing moments.
One of the more poignant secxtions was when Oprah spoke to Neil and David about how the parents will explain to their children that they have two dads and no mom (but excellent nannies?) shuffling around the house. It's an exchange that we can't imagine having witnessed a generation ago and think it may help people wrap their heads around the brave new world of fertility and pregnancy options (as well as help normalize Ryan Murphy's upcoming TV show The New Normal). I mean, at one point David explains that the surrogate was not the donor "more like the oven" and Oprah rolls with it. But here's how the daddy convo went down:
Oprah: Have you all thought about what you are going to tell Harper and Gideon about having two daddies and not two mommies and the first time they come home and say, whoever their friend is, 'They have a mommy why don't I?'
Neil: Yeah, well, one thing that I am so appreciative of that my parent's did to us, is to talk to us like we were regular people. And didn't talk to use like we were little babies.
Oprah: That's why you always say you do a lot of googoo talk
Neil: We're going to tell them information. I want them to have information. And I think the way that they were brought into this world was very unique and weirdly scientific and the technology involved in it I think is remarkable. But it came because we really, really wanted kids. Like we really had thought it through, financially, emotionally, relationship wise, like we didn't just accidentally get pregnant and decide that now we need to make this work. These kids come into our world with nothing but love...
Oprah: I just had an a-ha moment that almost made me tear up there just a little bit. You know what, I just realized what you were saying. I had an a-ha moment!
Neil: Nice!
Oprah: Because, same-sex couples, in order to have a child, means you really really really gotta do a lot of work to make that happen.
David and Neil: Oh yeah
David: Definitely
Oprah: So if you are a same-sex couple that has a child it means that child is so loved and so wanted. You just saying that just went bing bing bing! I never thought of it that way before.
Watch the clip below:
Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka's Deep Desire to Have Children
Oprah has an aha! moment about same-sex couples while talking with Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka about the complicated, scientific steps they took to have children.
