Meet Papas Manuel from Spain and Bud from New Jersey. Together they run the Two Gay Papas Instagram posting the most adorable family pictures with four-year-old Álvaro and two-year-old Carmen
With over 50K followers, we are not the only the only ones loving the adorable pictures they post.
Living in Spain where same-sex marriage has been legal since 2005, and the two dads have the kids through surrogacy.
The Two Gay Papas story starts as a blog in 2012 to chronicle their surrogacy journey. Now they use Instagram create positive stories about LGBT families with their day to day life.
Gay Star News caught up with the awesome Dads whose future dreams include opening a Paella restaurant together. Tuck in.
Why do you share your family life so publicly on Instagram and Youtube?
Because it is important that people see families like ours, that they become accustomed to seeing them, so it just becomes normal. We think this is the only way our kids will be able to live in a more tolerant society.
We have received many messages from people who had never seen a family with two dads before and then they see us and follow us on social media. And they congratulate us and thank us for showing them our children growing up happy even though they aren’t in a traditional type of family.
Many young people who are not yet completely out of the closet tell us that we are role models to them. That really makes us feel good. There are a lot of small towns that don’t have families with same-sex parents yet, so we feel like our visibility online is important, because everybody nowadays has access to the internet and are on social media.
What’s the cutest thing the kids have done to show their support for having two dads when you’ve been out and about?
This is their reality so it is completely normal for them. Actually, I have more often heard Álvaro and Carmen’s cousins and friends supporting our family, explaining to others in the park or at parties, that Carmen and Álvaro have two dads.
There is another funny little story…one day Carmen, who has just started talking a lot lately, told her dolls that she was the mom of the house, ha ha ha.
Why is it important to show positive stories of gay parents?
It is important to show positive stories of gay parents for two reasons.
The first is so people who may not know any same-sex parents are able to see first-hand that two men can be great parents. Our family is just a different type of family that they haven’t seen before.
The second is to send that message that yes you can be a parent even if you are gay. Many people have a desire deep inside to be a parent, this is human nature. Just because we are gay doesn’t mean that we don’t have this desire. We want to show that it can be done and it can be a fantastic experience and that gay parent can have normal, healthy and super happy children.
What message are you trying to send out with your account?
The more visibility, the better, for LGBT families, since we are a little forgotten in gay pride celebrations, gay-focused media and social media. There are endless images of gays with nice bodies and perfect couples with thousands of likes, and in pride celebrations we always see people having fun, drinking, dancing, etc., but LGBT families (with no time for the gym and normal bodies) also exist! Ha ha ha!
What are your favorite Instagram moments?
Our Instagram is full of “firsts”. There are posts about Carmen’s first steps, Álvaro’s first words, Carmen’s first time eating spaghetti, their first pepperoni pizza, their first day at the beach together.
This is a photo that marks a before and after in our Instagram. It was a photo taken when Carmen was a few months old and then used many times by press around the world to illustrate articles about same-sex parents. They weren’t talking about us specifically, but we thought this was really cool.
If we had to pick one favorite, it would probably be this one that really shows the love between Álvaro and Carmen and how well they get along.
This one is from the Valencia gay pride this year. The kids were not babies anymore and they really enjoyed marching in the parade and waving to people, the applause, the smiles, the music- they really had a blast. That night when we got home Álvaro wouldn’t stop saying he wanted to go to another party. We are very strict with bedtime, but that night we stayed out late and they loved that! ha ha ha
This was a really special day in our small town. We went to see a marathon where we had some friends participating and brought the unicorn heads to root on the runners. Àlvaro and Carmen (who wore them for a grand total of 5 minutes) were very proud of their unicorns parents and they wouldn’t let us take them off! We were the attraction of the day!
Follow the ADORABLE Instagram account now! Also, check out this video they made:
WATCH: These adorable kids want to tell you all about their gay dads