I wish to be a father

Dear all,

I am 32 year-old gay man from Portugal who would love to become a dad. As everybody knows, it is not exactly easy to become a parent when you are gay for a number of reasons. However, I won't go through all the obvious reasons why it is so hard for me to become a dad, instead I will just focus on the most important one: the law. The Portuguese law does not allow gay men to look for surrogates to become a parent. The same happens in all the European Union countries. The only countries in the world that would allow a gay man to be a biological father through surrogacy are Canada and the U.S.

I know that being a biological father is not the only way of becoming a father; adopting is also an option. Therefore, I submitted my application to adopt a child in Portugal a year ago. My adoption application was approved by the national social security system as a single man and I am now on the waiting list. Nevertheless, the estimated waiting time is at least 7/8 years, if I am lucky. It is excruciating to know that I have to wait that long for my dream come true. Lately, I have been also trying to adopt an orphan child from other countries, such as Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique (even traveled there), however I realized that it is almost impossible, unless you do it through unorthodox - illegal ways, to adopt a child in those countries if you are a single man and, worst, gay.

I am not complaining about my life. To be honest, I am a happy well adjusted person who is relatively successful personally and professionally but lacks what I consider the most defining and fulfilling aspect of my existence - "build" a family of my own.

I do have what it needs, emotionally and financially, to raise a child. I have a pretty stable life and a lot of love and availability to give. I just need the funds to pay for the surrogacy in the U.S.. Although I earn a reasonable salary for Portuguese standards, I don't have that amount to go to the US and pay for surrogacy services. My salary is not enough to pay for the my living expenses (in particular, bills and mortgage) and save for the surrogacy services. I mean, I am saving money but it will take me more than 10 years to gather all the funding needed for that.

Having said that, I created this profile to ask for your support. Not sure if crowdfunding is the best option for my case, but it's the only thing I could think of. Unfortunately, I don't have anyone else to ask for financial assistance. I created an email account for those you would like to pose me questions about my campaign. I reckon that there are a lot of fake profiles and campaigns and I want to make sure that you understand that my case is real and very honest.

Email: [email protected]

Thank you for taking the time to read my campaign.