Gay father: Daughter is God’s ‘unexpected’ gift

Ken Lennon Sabangan with his daughter.(Photo from Sabangan’s Facebook Page)

GOD’s “unexpected” gift turned life around for proud gay father Ken Lennon Sabangan.

The polio victim, who walks with a crutch, said he would “literally crawl” just to give the best life to his seven-year-old daughter.

But when Sabangan first learned that he was going to be a father, he admitted that it was really hard to accept.

“Of course, I wanted to be the one who got pregnant,” Sabangan, who works as an administrative aide in Valenzuela City’s People with Disability Services (PWDS), said.

Sabangan, who was then 33, had just broken up with the mother of his child because the 8-month relationship was “stifling.”

He decided to break up with his 20-year-old girlfriend whose “possessive” ways took him away from the gay community.

“I had loved her then,” Sabangan said.

“But I had to be true to myself,” he said.

Just when everything seemed to go back to normal, his ex-girlfriend called to tell him that she was pregnant with his child.

Sabangan recalled crying while the woman was laughing on the other line. His mother could not help but laugh as well.

“I knew that I was the only man in her life but I still tried to deny that the baby was mine,” he said.

Everything changed when he finally carried his baby girl.

“I felt her first breath and I couldn’t stop crying. Perhaps it’s what you call father’s instinct or more like mother’s instinct,” Sabangan said.

It was then that he realized that the biggest shock of his life was actually “God’s gift.”

Sabangan said he and the mother could have taken the conventional path and become husband and wife.

“But we’re better off as friends,” he said.

Having a relation with another woman is unimaginable. “Ewww! Yuck,” he said.

“She is my last,” Sabangan, who currently has a 23-year-old boyfriend, said.

A self-proclaimed hands-on “dad-mom,” he makes his daughter understand the situation by telling her, “You’re lucky to have two mommies.”

Although he would like to be referred as a “mother,” he still preferred to be called “Papa.”

Last Father’s Day, his daughter gave him a hand-made card with a note saying: “I Love You, Papa.”

“She is my light,” he said.

Sabangan said he is working hard to be able to send her to a private school.

“I do not have wealth. The only thing I could give her is good education,” he added. /INQUIRER