ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I examine how Spanish gay men who became fathers through transnational gestational surrogacy normalize their path to this ART method. I ask how far they draw upon normative family models during this process, and to what extent they transform them. I pursue these questions because, as relatively new reproductive subjects using ARTs, these fathers face a double dilemma in deciding how to account for their new methods of family formation in the face of conventional paths to parenthood. Through their use of surrogacy, Spanish gay fathers must normalize both surrogacy and gay parenting. I argue that they do this by equating their families to previously existing family formation practices. Even though their identity politics is innovative in certain respects, they distance themselves from unconventional family models, to bring themselves more into alignment with dominant social expectations.
