Gay man finds baby on the NYC subway--and the rest is history

Nice story.

What a lovely story

Nice to see other looks-divergent couples in the media.

What a lovely story!!

Look at the beybey l!

I hope they're as happy as me and my Nestor.

And they were very good parents - son is smart, well adjusted and at college studying computer science.

Nurture is just as important as nature.

Sweet inspiring story. It must've hurt to know he's abandoned on the subway but maybe he came out of it a better person.

Good news for a change.

Very sweet. What a lovely family.

[quote] But before too long Danny received an invitation from the Administration for Children's Services to attend a family court hearing, to testify how he had found the baby. When this took place, in December 2000, the judge asked Danny if he could stay for the entire hearing. He waited for the police to give their testimony, and then the judge addressed Danny again. "She says, 'Mr Stewart, I want to let you know what's happening here, in instances where we have a baby that has been abandoned, we want to place them in pre-adoptive foster care as quickly as possible.' "In my head, I'm thinking, 'Well that makes sense,'" says Danny. "And then the next thing out of her mouth was, 'Would you be interested in adopting this baby?'"

That's how adoption works, finders keepers? This is a beautiful story, but I bet a lot of people on long waiting lists to adopt won't be to happy.

This story brought a tear to this hardened, old man's eyes (not to be confused with my hardened arteries).

Read the article r11, it explains that.

A really amazing story. I admit, I cried.

[Quote] And they were very good parents - son is smart, well adjusted and at college studying computer science. Nurture is just as important as nature.

Since we don’t know what the kid would have turned out as with his original parents, we can’t make that conclusion for this case.

[Quote] That's how adoption works, finders keepers? This is a beautiful story, but I bet a lot of people on long waiting lists to adopt won't be to happy.

Sadly, no one’s on a waiting list for a black child

What a nice story.

With all the 23andMe kind of stuff, I wonder if the kid has ever considered trying to find his bio family. I know I wouldn't bother, except to get pertinent family medical information and certainly not to have them in my life.

While it's likely that the mother was some very scared, very young teenage girl who probably hid her pregnancy from her family, she had 9 months to come up with a better plan than leaving the baby in the subway.

[quote]"Under New York's Safe Haven Law people can safely leave children at fire houses, police stations or hospitals if they notify an appropriate person."

Even a teenager could figure this out.

Oh, and the guy on the right looks like Dan Savage to me.

Beautiful moment: "I said we're going to name him Kevin, and my mum just started bawling, because she had had a baby before me that died on birth, and they were naming that baby Kevin," says Pete.

I was prepared to say many cunty things, but the more I read of this story the more I was wiping tears off of my face.

Jesus, I'm glad there is still some humanity left out there.

This is finally what datalougue needed...a story of pure love. He was meant to be found by his fathers. Sometimes a child is born by your genes others some else’s but it’s who loves the child unconditionally that makes them their family. I am so glad to see Kevin is THRIVING and his dads are still together!

Such a beautiful and heart warming story. ❤️ The homophobic comments on Facebook are so nasty and cruel. 😡

Cut or uncut though?

But thank you for sharing such a sweet and uplifting story here, OP.

lovely story.

I found a five dollar bill once.

[quote] Read the article [R11], it explains that.

I am not r11, but I read the article and it didn't really explain why the judge made the decision to bypass the system in this case.

Wow, what a lovely story. I am surprised this hasn’t ever been covered anywhere before. Seems like one of those warm your heart stories that morning shows love to cover.

I guess ill say it if no one else will: the son is hot.

Gah, this is making my shriveled black tarry heart beat...a little. Kevin is so fortunate to have two strong intelligent men raise him. Thank you OP for this story.

Yes, it did, r25

[quote]At their first meeting, she explained that she had been involved in a short-lived pilot project placing babies who had been abandoned into pre-adoptive foster care, and that she'd had the authority to "expedite that process".

This subway story is better than Pizza Rat.

Nestor must be jealous as fuck, TWO DADDIES!!!

I was determined not to get weepy but when they asked the judge to marry them I couldn't help myself.

Anderson interviewing the fathers in 2013.

How odd that it is easier to adopt a baby than a cat or a rabbit.

I think the fact that one of the Dads is a social worker probably had something to do with the judge thinking they might make good parents.

I am genuinely delighted it all worked out so well and it is a lovely story, but the judge just asking like that in open court seems a bit unfair. If he’d had to say no it would probably have made him feel guilty for the rest of his life. Becoming a parent is a major life decision, I think it would have been more considerate to have had a quiet chat in chambers and given him time to talk it over with his boyfriend.

But...some things are just meant to be & their family is truly wonderful, so what do I know?

WHITE PRIVILEGE and how many TRANS BABIES were left to die on subway platforms. Literal abandoned trans baby genocide!

I'm shocked!

I looked it up, rr36. A total of 4 1/2.

It sounds like R25, judges were given wide authority and leeway at the time to find good homes for abandoned children quickly. I can appreciate the goal, and it sounds like they still went through all the standard “checks”. They just gave them the child first and did the normal “pre-checks” afterwards.

As R35 mentioned, I’m sure being a social worker played a lot in the judges decision to ask.

It is a wonderful story.

It doesn't make me "regret" not having children, but ....

I know I'm on the short list of several cousins' wills if it unfortunately comes up. Reading a story like this gives me ... hope/confidence? that I'd be at least a compenent parent.

It is a wonderful, heartwarming story. I am really impressed with these guys. I don't think I could have adopted a child in my early 30s.

[quote]"Under New York's Safe Haven Law people can safely leave children at fire houses, police stations or hospitals if they notify an appropriate person."

[quote]Even a teenager could figure this out.

The Abandoned Infant Protection Act went into effect in July of 2000. The infant was left in the subway in August. These were the dark ages of the internet and there was no social media. Whoever left him was likely someone illiterate and/or illegal.

What really alarmed me was when Danny found the baby and was asking people for assistance/help, and in typical New Yorker way, no one gave a shit. Not even the women. It's like it was destiny. This one gay man saw the baby and cared enough to investigate and get help. A beautiful story in the end, and I believe this was destiny that brought this handsome family together.

Such a great story. Just ordered several books for friends.

On a selfish note, I’m looking at the guys 20 years back and how they have physically aged, and wondering how much we all of us have changed.

This was genuinely uplifting. Thank you, OP!

Beautiful story and family. Thanks, OP.

Beautiful story. This judge and her thought process fascinate me - she clearly could see something special in them. And reading about her involvement in their marriage later on? Oh my word. Thank you for sharing this.

Every time I see BBC, I think big black cock. I've bee around here too long.

I’m still stressed out about him leaving the kid lying in the subway while he went upstairs to find a pay phone. TWICE!

That must have been a L O N G turnaround before taking off again.

Apparently being a parent was stressful for Pete. His hair fell out. Danny merely went gray.

(That was to provide the pointless bitchery demanded by the website).

i totally cried as well. this is an amazing story of people brought together and bonded by circumstance. i give so much respect to the judge for her decision. so happy they have each other as family, and i also appreciate that they described some of the discussions they had surrounding adopting, the didn't sugar coat it. Good job, humans...sometimes you actually come through and be, well...human in the best expression of it.

Well... that really beautiful story made me teary.

What a truly lovely family they are and they are very lucky to have each other.

So sweet, thanks for posting OP! The world needs more stories like this.

BTW, did somebody peel some onions?

Meh. What a waste of time and money.

Subway platform?!? And I this time I’ve been wandering around the cabbage patch!

Everyone makes it sound like the adoption was quick. It took two years.

I’m glad I didn’t find that baby. I took that train at 14th street all the time then. I would have been 25 at the time. I probably would have just propped it up on a bench before jumping on the next train.

Not to bring a dark cloud to this beautiful story. But something seems very off about the origins of this baby. Every NYer knows that rats wander those platforms all the time under those benches when it’s quiet and no one is around between trains. Even if you were completely out of it, I don’t think you’d leave your child on the subway platform. Even if you wanted it to die, you’d chose a dumpster. But the child was wrapped and put in a place it might be found.

Basically a mother (who doesn’t know better) who wraps her baby and wants it to be found would leave it in a public bathroom, or in a subway car itself. Something tells me something happened to the mother. Possibly a young girl who ended up in a bad way. Possibly killed or died in childbirth and someone involved left the baby there. I can almost hear someone saying when that person returned. “Did you take care if it?” “Yeah,” (guiltily) “I took care of it...”

I was wondering how long it would take for the party pooper to show up.

it's warm in the subway r57. that's why. any person who lives on the street knows this. she didn't want the baby to die.

I am not surprised it is a black baby

R59 it also was August so warmth wasn't a big concern.

Lucy Wallis needs to take her stories into TV scriptwriting. She knows how to push the buttons.

well, let's argue about it, r61.

or not. let's just be happy that an unwanted baby became wanted and grew up as a loved and functional being by a caring couple. the point is this man was adopted by a loving couple.

You don’t leave unwanted babies on subway platforms.

It's 'de rigueur' in my city to leave them on the front steps of the closest Roman Catholic Church in the dead of night.

r64 what is your argument about? are you trying to say this couple worked up a story? wtf are you on about??? we are all just happy that an unwanted child has grown up with loving parents. shut up now and go to fucking bed.

[quote] are you trying to say this couple worked up a story?

Seventeen of us in this thread have already described this incident as 'a story'.

We're living in the Post-modern world of Info-tainment which blurs fact and fiction in order to wring emotion from the consumer.

Your an idiot R66!

[quote] I don’t think you’d leave your child on the subway platform.

That's not what happened.

Another gay man, a Datalounger, found the baby in a stroller. The Datalounger, in a rare moment of inspiration, knew that a live newborn was just the thing to send his boring Labor Day tablescape in a completely different direction. Labor! Visions of Aunt Sandy's placentinis served in baby bottles danced in his head; maybe even a popper bottle wrapped in a tiny hospital blanket at each place setting.

When the coast was clear, he tucked the baby under his arm like a football and made for the exit. And then it happened: he caught a glimpse of the baby's flailing legs and they were fat. Fat! Quelle horreur! His centerpiece, moments ago so promising, had no discernible thigh-gap. Just rolls; rolls upon rolls. Oh, and the knees were imperfect.

Not on MY table! Punch and delete! He turned around, hissing, baby dangling at arm's length, and stashed the carb-faced little butterball under the nearest bench. His labor-themed Labor Day party was not to be.

At the same time Danny was discovering the baby, the Datalounger was just walking up to the cheese counter: "Give me three pounds of Red Dragon for my party, frau, and make it snappy!"

And that is the true story of Kevin's very lucky day.

The dad on the right was/is a handsome man.

R15, you are a lying dumb ass.

R59, it’s not about the warmth, it’s about the rats. Rats that definitely would have attacked a newborn baby smelling like blood laying on the ground if a subway platform.

And the baby is Latino, not black.

R71, the correct, acceptable term is Latinx. Using Latino is LITERAL VIOLENCE!!!

Well they’re not latin either. Is not like they’re de ed ants of Romans. They’re decedants of Incas and Aztecs and slaves and Spanish

The problem is the lack of baby hatches or baby boxes or (my favorite) in German the babyklappe, which had for centuries existed up until the 19th century throughout the world. They were these windows where one could easily and efficiently drop off a newborn baby anonymously and know that it would be safe and cared for. Some were giant flat wheel turntables that you would put the baby on and spin like a lazy Susan. You can see them in the architecture of old hospitals or orphanages like the Hospital of Innocents in Florence Italy, the first building that ever had blueprints for its building. There are some places in the world that are making a comeback, and it would probably do well for them to return today to add to the surrender of such children. Though SPOILER ALERT, you don’t get to see the hunky fireman you leave the baby with like on the HBO show Genera+ions, he was super hot!

This story made me cry. Then I read the thread and see the race trolls having a field day and now I've got to close Datalounge from my browser for the day. This place fucking sucks.

I found this in the subway and I'm keeping him.

Does anyone from MA remember this monstrosity?

“If you have a baby and don’t know what to do...”

R78 Is that what happened to the kids from ZOOM when they grew up?

"I’m glad I didn’t find that baby. I took that train at 14th street all the time then. I would have been 25 at the time. I probably would have just propped it up on a bench before jumping on the next train."

And that's what makes NYC the great city that it is.

As a gay father, with an adopted child, I find some of these comments intresting. First off, some people will take any race that comes along as long as it's a baby. I was fully ready to receive a African American child to adopt. I guess I was pretty lucky when I was presented with a white presenting child, although he is "Mexican" on his fathers side. The adoption did take a long time, almost two years. what the judge did for this couple was kind of like a "Finders Keepers" kind of thing and being a Social Worker only helped the couples case. Plus, Danny could have said "No, I do not want the kid." From my experience, once the agency passed me my child to hold, I felt an immediate connection. It is a lovely story. I'd rather read stories like this then the horror stories that some people post about horrible ends to children.

The NEXT story on that sight about about a "Foster child who when asked if he wanted to be adopted, drew himself into a family photo" is lovely as well.

There was never a problem with rats at the Baggage Room of Victoria Station

It is surprising until now that no one’s mentioned Ernest and the baby in a handbag yet.

To lose one parent, Kevin, maybe regarded as misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

FFS, R71, the baby was left on a busy platform during the morning commute. There are no rats on platforms then - they stick to the tracks until the wee hours when people are gone. It's pretty easy to imagine someone quickly placing a bundle in a corner while everyone is racing for an incoming train, and then slipping away herself, knowing the baby would be found quickly. Which it was, thankfully by exactly the right person.

R71, unless people eat dinner in the morning it was 8pm at night. And it was one of two stops, the 1,2,3 or the A,C,E at 14th street. And it really doesn’t matter the time of day, but especially then. There are garbage cans usually by those benches that rats sneak out of grates and run into. And they especially like to run under the benches because it gives them cover. I’ve seen it a hundred times. They run back and hide when a train approaches and come out when there a few to no people standing there. Even then rats have run right past people on the platform behind people’s feet sitting on the benches. So you have to be pretty depraved to leave your baby on the ground where rats can get at it. It’s like leaving your baby in the middle of 5th Avenue hoping someone finds it before it gets run over.

You either want to trash it or find it a safe place. That location is oddly between the two and makes no sense.

Maternal natural instinct would seem to be either kill, discard the baby in the trash or wrap it up and place it somewhere a little safer where it stands a better chance of being found.

And I may be teaching but a black sweatshirt is something a dude would wrap a baby in and tuck it away somewhere.

Are they a throuple now?

Fuck you, R88. Just the homophobic poison we need here.

Just go find a nice big grease fire.

[quote] "Gay man finds baby on the NYC subway"

NO. There's a difference between present tense and past tense!

Don’t most adopted kids end up rejecting their adoptive parents? It always shocks me - but I guess there is something about the psychological impact of knowing you’re adopted that makes you feel you can ditch your parents.

R90 that is the historic present, often used in journalism, in the English language. Frequently use in French.

We don't speak French here. We speak Gibberish.

The baby now attends Swarthmore. Class of 2022.

Fancy!

What a great story. Thanks OP

WTF, R91? Using the "don't most xxx experience YYY [insert awful thing]" is just the kind of disinformation tactic propagandists love.

Why don't you give us some statistics? Like this one, showing that >90% of adoptive kids have positive feelings about their adoptions?

Fucking weirdo trolls are the scourge of DL.

[quote] Don’t most adopted kids end up rejecting their adoptive parents?

No. Did you just make that up?

[quote]It always shocks me - but I guess there is something about the psychological impact of knowing you’re adopted that makes you feel you can ditch your parents.

“It always shocks” you? That stupid lie you just made up in the previous sentence?

WTF is wrong with you??

[quote] WTF is wrong with you??

There's no need to be so angry.

[quote]There's no need to be so angry.

Because you were just joking, amiright???

People who get so very angry with a fellow-anonymous-poster over a "story" make me assume they're somehow emotionally-invested with this issue or have an agenda.

Wow - Swarthmore. That’s not just good parenting - that’s some high IQ genes. Good for them. They should be proud.