Contributing blogger Kathy Kelly is the executive director of MEGA Family Project, which supports LGBT families across Georgia. She lives in Decatur with her wife and their daughter.

As the leader of Georgia’s largest LGBT family organization, I frequently talk about helping people explore whether parenting is the right choice for them. Often, LGBT people over 30 didn’t grow up with the expectation that parenting would be an option for them so they haven’t been thinking about it for a long time.

But walk through Decatur or Piedmont Park on the weekend and you’ll see gay couples pushing strollers. That sight is helping people realize they can become parents.

Gay families with children are rapidly becoming more visible. The MEGA Family Project’s programs that help people explore the options available to LGBT people considering parenthood have quickly become our most popular workshops.

But for gay people, it’s not as simple as “let’s have a night of unprotected sex and make a baby.” There are reams of information to sort through to decide what options are available and what is best for a particular person or couple. Our programs are designed to dispel myths and arm people with accurate information about their options as prospective parents.

Questions about personal finances, the age of the prospective parent, individual values, lifestyle decisions and legal issues all factor into the process of deciding whether to embark on the parenthood journey, and what path makes the most sense for the individual or family.

Deciding whether — and how — to become a parent isn’t something to be done without doing some soul-searching and good research. Becoming a parent is one of the most rewarding and joyful experiences you can have, but it is also a lifelong decision that shouldn’t be made lightly.

If you want more information about becoming a parent, please attend one of MEGA Family Project’s upcoming “Maybe Baby?” or “Creating a Family: Choices for Prospective LGBT Parents” seminars. They offer the most comprehensive information available to prospective LGBT parents. The next “Maybe Baby” seminar is Thursday and you can register for it on our website.

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