Life showed the proposed article to a focus group of advertising executives who made the magazine’s managing editor more cautious. One of the men’s ex-wives felt anxious about exposing family stories, and worried for her children.
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The pictures and text came together as a significant 12-page spread, but some obstacles began to emerge. At the editor’s request, Baughman also made a number of images that were designed for the cover of the magazine.
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Baughman stayed with the family over several days capturing other ordinary family moments, such as playing Pac-Man in the living room and splashing in the swimming pool. Between them they had four children, one of whom, a daughter with Down’s syndrome (you can see her in the background of the photograph) lived with them full-time.
![photos of two black gay men making out photos of two black gay men making out](http://www.styrowing.com/images/johndoe.jpg)
Living outside of Toronto, Canada, Michael was a letter carrier and Robert was an applications coordinator at the Worker’s Compensation Board while going to night school to earn a college degree. The photographer and author, with the help of the Gay Fathers’ Forum’s network, interviewed 49 couples before all the pieces and requirements fell into place. To be depicted in the prestigious picture magazine in an article titled “The Double Closet” could be personally risky for the couple. Life had yet to use the word gay in the magazine, or highlight any person as LGBTQ+, let alone put them on the cover. For their subjects, the stakes were high in the early 1980s. Their goal was to depict a happy, healthy gay family with dads willing to be visible to the world. Life agreed it could be a compelling article and gave him the go-ahead.īaughman welcomed Anne Fadiman as writer for the article. Baughman pitched Life Magazine a story that would explore this question. Men like Michael and Robert worried whether federal power might take their children from them for having same-sex partners. Baughman was also aware that a pending federal court case would decide whether gay fathers could have custody rights. Baughman learned of the emotional and psychological pain and coping strategies that sometimes led to substance abuse. Most gay dads lived as straight men in marriages. In the 1980s most gay men still did not talk about or admit to being gay. Compelled to understand what necessitated these meetings, he was permitted to attend and meet the group’s members. In the fall of 1982, Baughman’s attention was caught by a small notice, almost missed, in the Village Voice, an alternative newspaper in New York City, for the monthly meeting of the Gay Fathers’ Forum support group. In his memoir, Angle, Baughman recounted how the powerful image of Robert and Michael-along with Eryn on piggyback-came to be. While running Visions between 19, he also worked on assignments for Life Magazine, pointing his camera to cover Cuban refugees, AIDS, and wars in central America and the Middle East. Within a few years he left the Associated Press and opened the photo agency Visions. Ross Baughman.īaughman, a photojournalist with an interest in social justice, won the 1978 Pulitzer-Prize for his photographs of the brutal treatment of prisoners by Rhodesian Security Forces. The story of Gay Dads Kissing is a story about commitment to showing love and the waking up of the publishing world. Gay Dads Kissing was a history-making photograph that continues to hearten and resonate with many. Ross Baughman, it was the moment he was positioned for and waiting to capture.
![photos of two black gay men making out photos of two black gay men making out](https://www.hishealth.org/sites/default/files/learnings/juicing_cultural.jpg)
For Michael and Robert, the quick peck before a walk around the lake with Michael’s son was an ordinary moment.