1979

RY RUSSO-YOUNG

This is the only photograph my mothers could find of themselves together prior to having children. And that fact in and of itself speaks to their story perfectly. My mothers, Robin and Russo, met in 1979, fell in love instantly, and three months later were trying to have babies. Using a known donor who was a gay man, Russo inseminated herself using a glass syringe with no needle. My older sister, Cade, was born in 1980, and as my mothers describe it, “She was so perfect we wanted to do it again right away.” So they went about finding another gay man who was willing to donate his sperm and contribute to the making of a lesbian family during a time when such a thing barely existed. They wanted to use gay men as donors because they suspected other gay people would understand their family better. Robin inseminated herself with the sperm of a different gay man and gave birth in 1981 to me, Ry Russo-Young. They hyphenated our names to reflect both of their identities and the equality of their union. My mothers weren’t artists, but I like to say that their greatest creation was their family.