A Reason for Pride: Gay Parents Are Changing the World

BY LUCAS GRINDLEY
MAY 23 2013

Photo: Tony Donaldson

Comedian Alec Mapa and his filmmaker husband, Jamie Hebert, expected to keep traveling even after starting a family. Among the pages and pages of questions during the screening process for foster parenting, they indicated they wanted a boy age 3 to 5. “I never wanted a baby. I wanted someone independent,” Hebert says. “We travel so much, our lives are so mobile, so I wanted someone who could just grab on and go.”

“We hit the ground running with Zion,” Mapa remembers. “He went all over the world before he was even adopted.” The couple will regale you, as proud fathers do, with stories about their son’s wit. Like the time Mapa lectured Zion, now 7, at a Whole Foods and heard back, “And the Oscar goes to…” Or after moving too slowly, Hebert gets  “And now…I’m 70.”

The latest incarnation of Mapa’s stand-up act, Baby Daddy, is devoted to his life as father. Zion can’t possibly be separated from his parents’ careers. Hebert just finished work on Family Restaurant, a short film in which Zion lends voice to one of the characters. But their lives are changing — starting with all the traveling.

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