February 11, 2019
Coffey on baby watch
Waiariki MP Tamati Coffey hopes his decision to become a parent will bring light rather than heat to the issue of surrogacy.
Mr Coffey announnced at yesterday's Big Gay Out in Auckland that he and partner Tim Smith are having a baby through a surrogate mother.
He says he had shared the news with a lot of his whānau and colleagues, and it seemed a good venue to tell the wider world.
While there have been some adverse comments on social media, he says the overall response has been good.
"With our Māori whānau. I would say there is a lot more acceptance and people go 'Hey, you know what, at the end of the day if you're all good and you're a good person you should be able to do this.' They're seeing more the idea of two loving people bringing up a baby as being a really good thing, I applaud that, but within our Māori whānau there are still people who don't quite understand how two guys can have a baby," Mr Coffey says.
The mother is 20 weeks into the pregnancy.
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