Page 1 of 1

Angel vs. Reality

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 9:49 am
by JesusA (imported)
Angel, by Cainanite, is definitely one of the best-written stories on the Archive. It is outstanding by published mainstream literature standards. Reading the story, I'm sure I "know" some of the characters. They are completely real in their speech and behaviors. The only question is how "fantastic" the plot may seem. A recent news article makes it seem well within the realm of possibility....

A young gay couple discovered an abandoned infant in a New York City subway station. The judge asked them if they wanted to be his foster parents while the biological mother was sought. They eventually adopted the boy, who is now a happy, healthy, handsome twelve year-old. The story below is only one of many that have been written about the incident. The web site linked at the bottom leads to photographs, a screenplay about the story, and a video teaser as they seek someone to produce the film.

Angel seems positively mainstream.

Gay Couple Shares Unbelievable Story Of Adoption After Finding Baby On Subway

By Cavan Sieczkowski (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cavan-sieczkowski)

The Huffington Post

03/01/2013

When playwright Peter Mercurio (http://www.petermercurio.com/) answered the phone 12 years ago, he probably didn't realize the call would change his life.

On an August night in 2000, Mercurio received a phone call from his partner, David Stewart, who was at the Eighth Avenue A/C/E subway stop in New York City, recounts Mercurio in "We Found Our Son in the Subway," (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/20 ... /?emc=eta1) an op-ed for The New York Times.

“I found a baby!” Stewart yelled, according to Mercurio. “I called 911, but I don’t think they believed me. No one’s coming. I don’t want to leave the baby alone. Get down here and flag down a police car or something.”

When the couple appeared in family court that December to give their account of what happened, the judge overseeing the case asked if they'd be interested in adopting. Stewart, a social worker, replied "yes."

Visit the New York Times to read Peter Mercurio's full story. (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/20 ... /?emc=eta1)

The judge's request for Mercurio and Stewart to stay during the family court hearing was unusual, according to an article about the adoption (http://www.parents.com/parenting/adopti ... th-street/)previously published in Parents magazine.

"I want to let you know what's going on. When we have an abandoned baby, we try to place him in a permanent home as quickly as possible," the judge said before asking about their interest, according to the magazine.

The judge later revealed she "had a hunch" (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/20 ... /?emc=eta1) that they'd want to adopt and took a chance, Mercurio writes. The two went on to become foster parents to baby Kevin, then legal parents and then married parents.

Although their journey had a happy ending, Mercurio and Stewart's story highlights gay adoption around the world, especially in regions where gay couples are barred from adopting children.

Last year, Virginia lawmakers passed a bill allowing private adoption agencies to reject gay couples (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/0 ... 53125.html) on the basis of religious or moral beliefs. Mississippi specifically bans homosexual couples from adopting (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/20 ... laws-vary/), while Utah law prohibits cohabiting couples not legally recognized as married from adopting (but doesn't mention sexual orientation), ABC News notes. "Second parent adoption" allows one same-sex parent to adopt in 18 states plus Washington, D.C., while the other must become a legal guardian.

On Feb. 20, Puerto Rico upheld a law banning gay couples from adopting (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/2 ... ostpopular). Gay father and pop star Ricky Martin expressed his disappointment (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/2 ... 35073.html), tweeting, “How sad. This is like turning your back on children. So many orphans wanting to have the warmth of a home."

However, in Germany, the highest-court bolstered gay adoption laws (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/1 ... 17172.html) by allowing a person to adopt his or her same-sex partner's stepchild or adopted child. Previously, same-sex partners in the country could only legally adopt a biological child.

Peter Mercurio has written a screenplay about their adoption journey, called "Found (A True Story)." (http://www.foundstory.com/) Watch a teaser as www.FoundStory.com (http://www.FoundStory.com%0D)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/0 ... 90965.html

Re: Angel vs. Reality

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 12:28 pm
by JesusA (imported)

Re: Angel vs. Reality

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 2:10 pm
by Cainanite (imported)
Thanks for this.

I am trying very hard to ground this story in the realm of reality.

I feel bad that I have been so lax on writing new chapters. the last two months have been hard for me to even add a new sentence to the story. I have lost ALL my creativity it seems.

I'm trying again today to write some more. Hopefully it comes to me. I know what I want to say, but I just seem to have lost the will to say it.

Thank-you again for sharing this, Jesus. The reality is certainly amazing stuff. I just hope the fiction can live up to that.

Re: Angel vs. Reality

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 4:03 pm
by Lesley (imported)
Cainanite creativity comes in fits and starts. I have done a bit of creative writing and do you know what the spark that ignited it was? A Flightsim forum where we wrote about the flights we did on our own computers. I started doing a description of the flights just as a pilot would have done filling in a report and before I knew what I was doing, whole narratives came out of me.

Re: Angel vs. Reality

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:47 pm
by Cainanite (imported)
I have just completed Chapter 10, and it has been edited, and tweaked. It should be up on Friday this week. As usual, Paolo added some humour, and made some great suggestions, and Jesus corrected my terrible use of language.

Thanks to both of you!

Jesus and Paolo both made me realize that I was done with Chapter 10, and the stuff I was trying to shoehorn into this one belong in Chapter 11. It seems like the creativity is starting to come back. Let's hope it sticks around a while this time. Though it did take me a year to finish my last book, and I've only been working on this one a little over three months.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, and for Angel.