Several years ago, my then five-year old daughter came home from preschool recounting an interaction she had with her friend that day. He proclaimed that all families have a mom and a dad. She stated that this was not so: “I have a mama and a mommy. I have a donor, not a daddy.” My daughter is open, as we are with her. The two pondered this, and then continued on with their elaborate game of animal families. Best friends in their exploration of the world, they were unwittingly engaged in a conversation that strikes at the core of current discourse on donor insemination in the United States.
