We Are Dad is a 2005 documentary film produced, directed, filmed, and edited by Michel Horvat that depicts the family of the Lofton-Croteaus and their attempts to adopt their foster son, Bert. The film was released after the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear the case Lofton v. Secretary of the Department of Children & Family Services, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Lofton-Croteaus and other same-sex couples, which sought to overturn the 1977 ban on same-sex adoption in Florida.
Synopsis We Are Dad follows the daily activities of Steven Lofton and Roger Croteau, pediatric nurses in the AIDS unit and life partners, in raising their family of five children. Three of the children are foster children under the purview of the State of Florida, and two were adopted in the State of Oregon. Four of the children are HIV-positive.
The film focuses on the issue of both Lofton's and Croteau's inability to adopt their foster children under the existing statutes of the State of Florida. The film juxtaposes scenes of daily life in the Lofton-Croteau household with soundbites from both supporters of their case, Lofton v. Secretary of the Department of Children & Family Services, such as Rosie O'Donnell; licensed professionals and experts, such as Margaret Fischl and Judith Stacey; and those who oppose LGBTQ rights, including Randy Ball, Paul Cameron, and then-president of the Family Research Institute, Kenneth L. Connor.
Background In 1988, both men underwent training to become foster parents and were given custody of three HIV-positive children between the ages of six months and one year. The State required Lofton to quit his job and stay home full time to care for the children's medical needs. In 1991, Bert was placed with them, and in 1994, Bert seroreverted. In 1998, the Children's Home Society created an award for "outstanding foster parent of the year," which they named the Lofton-Croteau Award, giving the inaugural honor to Lofton and Croteau. Lofton and Croteau were granted permission by the State to move to Oregon, and in 2001, received a letter from Florida stating that the State intended to look for another family for Bert. The State of Florida had placed him with Lofton and Croteau as foster parents because, as a child with HIV, he had been considered "unadoptable."
The film's release followed SCOTUS' refusal to hear the case Lofton v. Secretary of the Department of Children & Family Services on January 10, 2005. Brought by the ACLU on behalf of several homosexual foster parents wishing to adopt in Florida, the case concerned a statute passed in 1977 that followed a campaign to suppress gay rights by overturning a Miami ordinance led by Anita Bryant, which then led to the formation of Save Our Children and the passage of the aforementioned statute. The 1977 statute specifically prohibited homosexual or bisexual persons from adopting children in the state. On August 30, 2001, Judge James Lawrence King declared the 1977 Florida ban to be constitutional.
Media coverage of the case, specifically in the Miami Herald, prompted Rosie O'Donnell to contact the ACLU in September 2001. In March 2002, O'Donnell announced her lesbianism, specifically citing the Lofton-Croteau household's struggle over adopting in Florida as a reason for doing so. O'Donnell helped publicize the ACLU website LetHimStay.com, which helped spread the message regarding the Lofton-Croteau case and how Governor Jeb Bush's administration had reclassified Bert as "adoptable" because of his seroreversion.
Cast Listed alphabetically, all as self:
Production Michel Horvat produced, directed, filmed, and edited We Are Dad, which received a production grant from the Pacific Pioneer Fund through the Independent Documentary Association. The documentary was filmed over four years. It was produced through Tavroh Films and distributed by Indie-Pictures.
Pacific Soundwaves of Santa Monica, California handled the digital post-production for the film.
Themes The film focuses on same-sex adoption, specifically in the State of Florida. In addition to Florida's adoption law itself, the movie addresses the tense relationship Lofton and Croteau had with the State.
Release We Are Dad premiered at the fifteenth annual Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival on March 5, 2005. It screened at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival on April 30, 2005. The film screened at the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival on June 12, 2005.
As an official selection of the Frameline Film Festival, it played at the Roxie Theater the morning of June 19, 2005, then premiered to wider audiences on Showtime at 7:00 PM.
It continued to screen at film festivals both domestically and internationally throughout 2005 and 2006. In July 2005 at the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Outfest, and at the Dublin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. In August, at Outflix in Memphis, Tennessee. In October, at the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival the Mount Shasta International Film Festival, and at the Seattle Queer Film Festival. In November at the Spokane GLBT Film Festival, in Argentina, and at LesGaiCineMad in Madrid.
In January 2006, it screened at . In February, at the OutFar! Film Festival in Phoenix. In April 2006, at The Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, sponsored by Outfest, and as part of the seventeenth annual Boybutante Ball, playing at the 40 Watt Club, with proceeds benefiting AIDS Athens. In May, at the Northeast Kingdom Rainbow Festival in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. In November, at the IMAX theatre in Winnipeg's annual Reel Pride film festival.
We Are Dad screened at the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination's festival on June 8, 2007.
It screened in La Serena, Chile in October 2009.
In 2020, Frameline included We Are Dad in a series of AIDS-related documentaries streamed online for free at the beginning of July.
Home media We Are Dad was released on DVD on June 27, 2006 at MSRP . Special features included a family photo album, a featurette titled "Fun with Fundies," and twenty minutes of bonus footage.
Critical reception Contemporary reviews Sandy Wolf for Cinequest appreciated the inclusion of the multiple points of view on gay parenting, saying that the presentation was both "infuriating and inspirational." Erik Schut for the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival called the film "remarkable," noting that it conveys true "family values."
Michelle McCarthy, writing for The Advocate, stated that the documentary shows how "chilling" the arguments from conservative commentators are, and how those critiques are inapplicable when juxtaposed with images of the Lofton-Croteau family.
Darwin Porter agreed with an online review that noted the hypocrisy of Florida's "self-righteous, irrational, and paranoid" Department of Children and Families. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times was impressed with Horvat's inclusion of interviews with professionally trained sociologists and psychologists who concurred that no evidence exists that same-sex couples are "unsuitable parents" and how they were juxtaposed against the counter-argument, calling the documentary "ahead of its time."
Retrospective reviews The website Gay Dads Australia, writing about the documentary in 2009, noted that the Lofton-Croteau family "is full of joy, laughter, the bustle of activity, and a well-honed sense of irony."
Linda L. Layne, writing at the beginning of her tenure as a visiting fellow for the Reproductive Sociology Research Group at the University of Cambridge, found the film to be "poorly constructed." Layne felt that the inclusion of so many clips for opponents of same-sex parenting was unwarranted. Layne's review included six other films as well, and of the whole, she claimed that the households presented by the documentaries were atypical of same-sex parents in that the subjects were highly educated, lived on either the eastern or western coast of the United States, and were in the middle or upper middle classes.
Accolades We Are Dad tied with Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary at Cinequest for the Best Feature Documentary award. The documentary received the Programmer's Award at the 11th annual Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at Outflix 2005. It also received the Audience Award at the Spokane GLBT Film Festival in November 2005.
The documentary was nominated for the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary in 2006. It received the Best Documentary Award at Zinegoak in January 2006.
It was listed as a "Notable Video for Adults" in 2007 by Booklist.
+Accolades Date Event Award Recipient Result March 2005Cinequest Film & Creativity FestivalBest Feature DocumentaryWe Are DadJuly 2005Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film FestivalProgrammer's AwardAugust 2005Outflix Film FestivalAudience Award for Best DocumentaryNovember 2005Spokane GLBT Film FestivalAudience Award200617th GLAAD Media AwardsGLAAD Media Award for Outstanding DocumentaryJanuary 2006Best Documentary
See also 2005 in film
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