The Queer Family Podcast – LGBTQ Families & Queer Parenting Stories · Jaimie Kelton – Queer Parenting & LGBTQ Families'.

Mark & Eoin: Two Irish Dads, Two Daughters, and a Fight for Change

·1 hr 13 min·4 clips

Mark and Owen say fatherhood was always on their radar, then used wedding money for surrogacy.

1. The Queer Family Podcast episode centers on Mark and Owen, two Irish dads raising Aria and Nala through surrogacy. 2. Jamie hosts the conversation and frames Mark and Owen as guests because they are working parents, public advocates, and founders of Two Men and a Surrogacy. 3. The episode asks what it looks like when queer family building becomes both a personal path to parenthood and a push for law reform in Ireland. 4. Mark and Owen say they had wanted to be fathers for years, but the pandemic gave them time to move from idea to action. 5. They describe redirecting money originally set aside for a wedding into embryos, clinic visits, and the start of an independent surrogacy journey. 6. They explain that an agency route felt financially out of reach, so they broke the process into stages instead of paying everything at once. 7. Their embryo search focused on practical screening, including family medical history, hereditary risk, and details such as migraines. 8. They describe donor browsing as if it were a Tinder-style profile process, with medical information sitting beside appearance-based judgments. 9. A doctor also told them that looks, unlike many health traits, do pass on, which pushed the conversation toward how parents make choices when they have options. 10. They say they wanted a known egg donor rather than a fully anonymous arrangement, because they wanted their children to be able to know the women involved. 11. The donor they chose had Nigerian heritage, and Mark says they want to preserve that background for their daughters with specific family information. 12. Their daughter Aria calls the donor her “donut,” which they treat as a sign that the children can name the relationship in their own way. 13. They keep a “book of their people” that includes cousins, uncles, the surrogate, and the donor, so the children can see their origin story in one place. 14. Mark says he even used reverse image search to locate the donor’s Instagram so they could ask permission to follow her. 15. They contrast that openness with the anonymity many families expect, and they say being able to offer contact later removes some of the mystery for the children. 16. The surrogate search was much harder, and they say they spoke to hundreds of people before finding Hayley. 17. Hayley stood out because she had finished two prior surrogacy journeys, was open about complications, and wanted a continuing relationship with the family. 18. The legal setup included separate lawyers in New York and Texas, a psychological check for Hayley, and an escrow account that handled payments step by step. 19. The tone is conversational and practical, with Jamie pushing for specifics while Mark and Owen answer in a relaxed, story-driven interview style. 20. Listeners interested in surrogacy, donor openness, and Irish LGBTQ parenting will get the most from this episode; listeners wanting a fast celebrity interview or a plot-driven story may skip it.

As heard by us

Queer parenting, activism, and loss come together in a conversation that stays intimate even when it gets hard.

The conversation stays with queer parenting, activism, and loss, and it keeps returning to the strain of being expected to fight on every front at once.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want queer family life, grief, and trans-rights activism held in one steady conversation.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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