Here Family

Long before same-sex parenting became a familiar subject on television, Here Family set out to show what raising children inside the LGBT community actually looks like. Hosted by Michelle Darné and directed by Daniel Loewenthal, the three-episode series from 2005 approaches parenthood as a practical matter as much as a political one, walking through the routes that gay and lesbian couples take to build a family, including surrogacy, in-vitro fertilization and adoption, and the questions that follow once the baby arrives, from non-traditional breastfeeding to domestic partnership and balancing work with home life. Interviews with parents and public figures sit alongside straightforward advice, including tips on managing the costs of a growing household. Warm in tone and unfussy in format, Here Family is a time capsule of queer family life in the mid-2000s and a reminder of how much of the conversation was still new.