Parenting reinvented: the shape of the new modern family

Call it the new platonic ideal. They’re friends, acquaintances and sometimes even total strangers who unite non-romantically to raise a child

Families have always come in a multitude of shapes and sizes. That’s not new. But now, thanks in part to Bill 28, Ontario courts recognize the legal rights of up to four co-parents, regardless of their sexual orientation or how the child was conceived. The All Families Are Equal Act, as it’s called, came into effect last January and has opened up a broad new world of legally recognized parenting possibilities: gay man plus straight woman, gay woman plus gay man plus straight woman, two straight people who just aren’t into each other, and many more permutations. Here, in their own words, is what it’s like to live at the frontier of the fast-evolving notion of family.