By David Dodge

Apr 26

Apr 26 The Child Averse Sperm Donor

“Whose got your nose!” someone was carrying on in falsetto. I was mid-eye-roll before realizing, to my mortification, that it was I who was emitting these horrible noises. It was I who had her nose.

Apr 3

Apr 3 Sperm Donation is Full of Euphemisms, and an 11-Year-Old is Full of Questions

David Dodge

Parenting, NYTimes Sperm Donor Diary

Arriving at my scheduled “donation time,” a technician guides me to the “collection room,” points out my various “entertainment options,” and hands me a sterile cup for my “specimen.”

Apr 1

Apr 1 The Cuckoo Bird and the Baby

David Dodge

Parenting, NYTimes Sperm Donor Diary

Wow, what a nasty little bird, I thought. Imagine, tricking someone else into raising your own biological offspring. That’s just so wrong, so… Suddenly it hit me: I’m the cuckoo bird.

Apr 1

Apr 1 A Sperm Donor, Uncertain of What It Is to Be 'Bio-Dad'

David Dodge

NYTimes Sperm Donor Diary, Parenting

“But … I’m so short!” This, unfortunately, will always be the first phrase out of my mouth after my good friends, Tori and Kelly, asked me to be their sperm donor over a pizza dinner in Lower Manhattan.

Oct 30

Oct 30 Hippie Hal: The Three-Peat Known Sperm Donor, Part II

David Dodge

Gays With Kids, Parenting

Part II of an article feautring "Hippie Hal" and his "wives"

Oct 26

Oct 26 Hippie Hal: The Three-Peat Known Sperm Donor

David Dodge

Gays With Kids, Parenting

Hal Offen blazed a trail of sorts in the world of known sperm donation... three times over.

Jul 22

Jul 22 Putting the 'Known' in Known Sperm Donor

David Dodge

NYTimes Sperm Donor Diary, Parenting

"Did your childhood ever feel overly complicated?" I asked Flannery, who has two moms and a known donor.

Jul 15

Jul 15 The Gay Mormon Known Sperm Donor from Utah

David Dodge

NYTimes Sperm Donor Diary, Parenting

I’ve had a lifetime to prepare my responses to the gay Mormon line of questioning, but I often find myself at a loss as to how to answer much of what’s posed to me about my known donor arrangement with Tori and Kelly.

Jul 8

Jul 8 The No Longer Reluctant Sperm Donor

David Dodge

NYTimes Sperm Donor Diary, Parenting

As someone with the parental instincts of a fire hydrant, it was hard for me to understand why anyone would voluntarily put themselves through IVF, such an expensive and emotionally exhaustive process.

Jun 24

Jun 24 Sperm Donation Puts a New Layer on an Old Friendship

David Dodge

NYTimes Sperm Donor Diary, Parenting

“So just blow up an air mattress for me!” I declared over another of our meals. “I’m moving in!” Tori’s eyes, already of Disney-character proportions, nearly popped out of her head.

Jun 17

Jun 17 At the Cutting Edge of Gay Family Law

David Dodge

NYTimes Sperm Donor Diary, Parenting

I was always planning to relinquish my parental rights. According to Judge Torres, though, I never had those rights to begin with.

Jun 10

Jun 10 Who's Your Mommy? We Don't Know - Yet

David Dodge

NYTimes Sperm Donor Diary, Parenting

Where else, besides bad daytime television, have you ever heard of doubts surrounding the maternity of a child?

May 29

May 29 The Known Sperm Donor

David Dodge

Gays With Kids, Parenting

“You’d make such a great father!” friends and family will say, or at least the ones who have never seen me hold a newborn like a radioactive sack of potatoes.