At the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards Saturday night,Andy Cohenwas presented with the Vito Russo Award for his activism and role as an openly LGBTQ media professional who has helped further LGBTQ acceptance.
During his acceptance speech, Cohen, 50, spoke about his own experience navigating his identity in the LGBTQ community and becoming a father to his son,Benjamin Allen.
Cohen welcomed his now 3-month-old son via surrogate on Feb. 4, 2019.
Andy Cohen/Instagram
“I never thought it could happen,” Cohen said about starting his own family. “When Benjamin was born three months ago, I looked into his eyes and I saw that there was no hate, no bias, no bigotry — just love.”
The star added: “That’s how we come into this world and that is how hopefully one day we will all live in it.”
TheWatch What Happens Live with Andy Cohenhost recalled when he first came out to his family, telling the audience and viewers that his mother told him she needed to mourn the loss of her son ever having a family of his own.
“What a gift that I spent today with my parents and my son,” Cohen said.
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“He was so alert for the first two hours. His eyes were wide open. He didn’t cry; he was just calm,” Cohen said. “I kind of have no words for it.”
Cohen may not have become a first-time parent until a little later in life than most, but the advantage of that, he said was that he has “a sense of calm that I didn’t have 10 [or] 20 years ago.”
The new dad added, “I think I will be [a] strict [dad], but I have a sense of what to get hysterical about and what to let slide. Idon’t want to be a helicopter dad. I don’t want to stress him out. I don’t want to stress myself out.”
source: people.com
