Thursday, April 26, 2012

Zach Wahls is a QueerSpawn


It is not often the famous offspring of LGBT parents are actually famous because of their parents’ sexual orientation, but that is the case for Zach Wahls. Born Zacharia Wahls in Iowa on July 19, 1991 to lesbian parents Terry Wahls and Jackie Reger. Zach has one sister, Zebby. Zach burst onto the scene when he got up to testify before the Iowa House of Representatives. He had no idea what was in store for him. After simply sharing his story and explaining his thoughts on why same-gender marriage is constitutionally protected, and ought to remain so, a video of his testimony made its way–unbeknownst to Zach–onto YouTube. Over the course of that week, the testimony proceeded to go ludicrously viral, landing Zach appearances on MSNBC, CNN and the Ellen DeGeneres Show, with various iterations of the video racking up some two million hits on YouTube. On leave from his environmental engineering studies at the University of Iowa, he’s doing his best to juggle his various ongoing projects with his passion for seeing full marriage equality both protected in Iowa and secured in other states. Zach is trying to balance engineering classes, writing, speaking, advocacy and training (and a personal life!) amid the developments since his Iowa testimony. He continues to enthusiastically advocate on behalf of families like his.