'Queer Eye' Star Tan France Explains Why the Conversation Around Breastfeeding Needs to Change
Tan France and his husband, Rob, will be welcoming their first child together via surrogate this summer. The couple shared the news that they were expecting a baby boy in April by posting photos on Instagram, with the Queer Eye star sharing a shirtless picture of himself with their baby's sonogram over his stomach.
"So happy to finally share that WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!" Tan wrote. "No, I'm not pregnant, despite this VERY realistic pic. With the greatest gift/help of the most wonderful surrogate, Rob and I are lucky enough to be on our way to being parents, this Summer. Something we've wanted for SOooo many years. Our hearts are so full right now. I cannot wait to hold this baby, and to show him so much love."
The 38-year-old designer has previously opened up about his desire to have children with Rob. "I truly do want six. I will settle for minimum four. And no, six is not loads. It's just enough," Tan told the Press Association while talking about Queer Eye in 2018.
"I think that what we do well on the show, or what Netflix did well, was cast five people who are incredibly outspoken and opinionated and vocal and I am one of those people and I feel privileged to be in a position where I get to talk about what I want to do. And if I want to have children, I want to talk about it, and nobody can say it's wrong and get away with it," he continued.
"I think that just by the nature of our show and by the nature of who I am, I think that helps lend a light and shine a light on a method that isn't discussed as often as it should be."
As the couple prepares for parenthood, Tan teamed up with Bobbie -- the first European-style organic infant formula meeting FDA requirements and the only female-founded and mom-led infant formula company in the U.S. -- in its national awareness campaign to evolve the conversation around how parents feed their babies for National Breastfeeding Awareness Month.
Bobbie’s “How is feeding going?” campaign seeks to normalize all feeding journeys including pumping, supplementing and exclusively formula feeding. "I need the conversation to evolve so that my own child doesn’t grow up thinking he is second best because he is formula fed,” Tan said in a press release.
“Ever since we announced we are having a baby, people have asked, 'Where will you get your donor milk?' 'Will the surrogate be donating her milk?' It’s such a strange thing that at any point no one has talked about formula,” he added.
In the campaign video, the television personality says, "We live in a world now where gay men can adopt, gay men can go through a surrogacy process. We need options too and so I need the conversation around feeding to change so that my child, when he's older, understands that he's not a lesser child because he wasn't breastfed."
Bobbie is asking parents, doctors, and health care providers to pledge to ask the inclusive question “How is feeding going?” rather than “How is breastfeeding going?” and the brand is committed to creating a virtual safe space at howisfeedinggoing.com for parents to share their own stories.
To learn more about “How is feeding going?” or to sign the pledge, please visit www.howisfeedinggoing.com. Bobbie formula is available at www.hibobbie.com.
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