Here’s his story… Before we had kids, we traveled together, and it was life changing.
Travel opens your mind to different points of view and ways of life.
At the time, my mom had terminal cancer, and we were all about connecting with family.
Credit:Courtesy of Jon Bailey
My mom passed away, and Sophia was born two weeks later, in 2002.
We welcomed Ava two years later.
The first trip we took with Sophia was to Hawaii when she was eight months old.
Courtesy of Jon Bailey
We rented a big house, and it was a wonderful time.
On the way back, we got on the airplane and sat on the tarmac for a while.
Then, the doors opened andfederalesboarded armed and removed us and another same-sex couple and their baby.
Courtesy of Jon Bailey
We were detained at the airport.
It was scary because I wasn’t sure whether they were going to separate us from our baby.
You’re in a foreign country and they take all your papers.
Courtesy of Jon Bailey
My Spanish isn’t great.
If we were going to a foreign country, we’d have to think about it with more intention.
I do research to ensure where we’re going at least acknowledgessame-sex couples.
Courtesy of Jon Bailey
All my research showed it was welcoming, and it truly was.
The most uncomfortable I’ve ever been is when we went to Turkey.
Our gay friends said we had to go for the most amazing experience.
We had chosen a hotel in Istanbul’s old city.
We got a lot of dirty looks.
While we were there, we went on a tour we had arranged with a private tour guide.
He was a great guide.
The next day, we had a new tour guide.
After that, we went to Greece for a week to Super Paradise Beach on Mykonos.
Overall, no one ever has been outright rude or disrespectful.
We get just as many wonderful, positive, loving, accepting, and welcoming remarks.
Ireland was one of those places, as was Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan, Spain, and Italy.
They look at us because we might look different to them.
As our kids got older, they started to realize what was happening.
They didn’t sign up to be spokespeople for this, so I think it embarrassed them.
But when Barack Obama was up for reelection, same-sex marriage cases were being heard at the Supreme Court.
Obamawrote back a personal letter, answering her question beautifully and eloquently.
That was a big deal in our family and a lot of other families.
The world has changed.
We’ve now taken the girls to Mexico dozens of times with no issues.
Mixed-race families and all varieties of parents, couples, and single parents have become commonplace.
It just doesn’t bring the shock value it did when we first began.
Empathy is a huge thing for us and for teaching our kids.
Just understanding that we all don’t live exactly [one way].
Along the way, we passed through little villages of five to 10 houses.
They had maybe one wall and a roof, and the rest was open.
When we got to the monastery, I could see the wheels turning in my kids' heads.
It really struck them.
One of them wrote an essay at school about it.
That was a proud moment for us.
We didn’t plan it.
It wasn’t meant to be a lesson.
