Gay activist and accredited lifestyle coach Paul Van Reyk has been featured on Australian TV as a sort of stud for single women and lesbians. More than 20 years ago he began his progenitive career by fathering a child for a single woman whom he married, but only to give the child legal protection. It was, in part, a political statement. "It seemed wrong to me that gay men and woman were excluded from having children," he says.

Then other friends sought his help and now Mr Van Reyk has had six children by five different mothers. He may even have another half dozen children, but he is not sure because he agreed not to inquire about whether these women had successfully conceived. Although he is not involved in his children’s lives on a day-to-day basis, he feels comfortable with his role. He even celebrates Father’s Day rather like a polygamous patriarch presiding over his brood.

The casualness of his sexual engagements has at least one drawback, the possibility of unwitting incest. His first child Mary even jokes with his second, Raj, that he should be careful about kissing a possible sibling.

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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