Gay Dads: The Two Of Us

When I did have a long-term boyfriend, whom the children saw most weekends, they never bothered to ask why Mr Scruffy – as they called him – was always there. And though they were fond of him, it was almost 18 months after we split up before one of them even noticed he hadn't been around. "Where's Mr Scruffy?" asked Ed one Saturday afternoon at the movies. Oh, he's been busy, I replied. Ed nodded his head and carried on picking out cola bottles at the pick 'n' mix counter.

"Gay Dad" in The Observer.
Fagburn quite likes this, but it is rather odd that The Observer got a gay dad weekly columnist at the exact same time that The Guardian began running Charlie Condou's column about being a gay dad, The Three Of Us.
They're both quite sweet - in a "Let me show me some photos of my baby" shut up kinda way - and clearly "a good thing", but where does this adoration and fetsish of the great gay dad spring from?
Just a year ago, gay dads Tony and Barrie Drewitt-Barlow were presented as "weird" (and wonderful) on Channel 4.
And there was I thinking "heteronormativity" was just a load of academic wankspeak.