#7 Eric Tung: The Outlandish Idea Of A Gay Dad
How would you describe the conversations at your family dinner table? When Eric Tung was a kid, there was never much room at dinner for communication with his parents, a pair of fairly conservative Chinese immigrants.
Growing up in an affluent suburb in Southern California, Tung and his family were rarely exposed to the more diverse faces of Los Angeles, let alone gay men. So it comes as no surprise that it took years for Tung to come to grips with his sexuality, and even more time to discuss it with his parents. And even when he finally came out as an adult, his parents were shocked.
On this episode of Paternal, Tung discusses the process of coming out to his parents and, in a move that left them curious and even critical, how he planned on becoming a father, with or without a partner. “That was even more outlandish,” Tung says. “They had never seen it. The notion of a gay dad was completely foreign to them.”
Tung also discusses the anxieties around the surrogate process and how he communicates with his young son about their non-traditional family structure, as well as how his parents have adapted and supported him since he became a father.
