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Description
Tune in to OUT Cast on Monday, May 2nd as the host, Alex Thompson, presents the 2nd in the series, The Intersection of the African American & Queer Experience. In this episode Alex will explore the intersection of white gay men and adoption of African-American children. Alex’s guest will be Randy & Paul Johnson-Campion who are educators, authors, trailblazers, philanthropist but most importantly, white same-gender parents of four African-American children. The couple met in 1991 and immediately began talking about their desire to be fathers. Within six months, Paul, a teacher, and Randy, a nurse, moved in with each other having their most significant bonding conversations revolve around their views on family. Over the course of the next decade, the couple worked to build their family. After many twists and turns in the complicated adoption process, in which their state did not favor same-sex couples, they were finally proud parents to twin black boys, and soon after, they welcomed a little girl into their lives. Four years later, they decided to be foster parents to a 7-year-old who Paul met through his work as a school counselor. Shortly after they became foster parents, they certified a final adoption of the child. Their happy family of six was now complete. Randy and Paul joined a federal lawsuit seeking respect for their 2008 California marriage and the marriages between same-sex couples legally performed in other states by their home state. In February 2014, they celebrated as the judge ruled in their favor, and although on November 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled on the wrong side of history, they did not give up the fight and found themselves standing in front of the Supreme Court of the United States. In June, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in their favor, making same-sex marriage the law of the land. Randy & Paul join Alex to share their unique experiences as white gay men raising four black children in the early 90s into adulthood. They discuss the social and legal stereotypes of white gay parents with black children, the challenges of raising young black men during the era of the Black Lives Matter/pre & post Trump’s America as well as raising their teenage daughter following the shooting death of Breonna Taylor. You do not want to miss this riveting and thought provoking conversation about the intersection of race and family. You can read more about the family and their triumphs and challenges in their book, Higher Love: The Miraculous Story of a Family.
Publication Date
5-2-2022
Publisher
USM Special Collections
City
Portland, Maine
Disciplines
Cultural History | Digital Humanities | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | History | History of Gender | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Oral History | Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Recommended Citation
90.9 WMPG FM, "OUTcast Maine 05/02/2022" (2022). OUT cast. 172.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/outcast/172
