becoming babyREADY with Sam Leeson - All About Queer Family Planning & Creation

Talking about money is uncomfortable. Planning for your financial future? Even more so. But here's the truth: for those of us in the queer community, financial empowerment isn't just a nice-to-have — it's the foundation that makes everything else possible, including building the families we dream of.

In this episode, I sit down with Parisa Pajooh, financial advisor and founder of Diverse Wealth Inc., for a conversation that is equal parts eye-opening and genuinely refreshing. Parisa brings a values-based, judgment-free approach to financial planning — one rooted in honesty, empathy, and real-world guidance that actually meets you where you are.

We dig into what a financial advisor really does (hint: it's so much more than picking stocks), what questions you deserveto have answered, and why inclusive financial planning isn't just a buzzword — it's a whole different way of showing up for clients.

Whether you're just starting to get your financial footing or you're a business owner ready to scale, this episode will leave you feeling like you finally have a seat at the table.

What we cover:

• Why the queer community faces unique financial barriers — especially around family building
• What holistic, inclusive financial planning actually looks like in practice
• The questions every client deserves to ask (and have answered!)
• Tax-smart investment strategies and long-term wealth building, broken down in plain language
• How Diverse Wealth's approach ditches the one-size-fits-all model for good

Connect with Parisa & Diverse Wealth:

• 🌐 Website: parisafinancial.com
• 📅 Book a free consultation: calendly.com/parisapajooh
• 📸 Instagram: @parisapajooh.diversewealth
• 💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/parisapajooh
• 📩 Sign up for the Diverse Wealth Newsletter (no jargon, just real guidance): Sign up here

What does it look like when love becomes legacy? Jamie McGonnigal's story is proof that the most powerful families are built with intention — and a whole lot of heart.

Jamie and his husband Sean found each other in 2010, and when marriage equality finally became the law of the land in the US, they wasted no time making it official. But building their family? That was a journey all its own.

It started with a single class — Maybe Baby — offered through Rainbow Families in DC. Armed with knowledge, a clear vision, and serious determination, Jamie and Sean took every class, checked every box, and held on through three years of waiting, hoping, and dreaming.

Then came Malcolm. And everything was worth it.

But Jamie isn't slowing down. By day (and night), he's a professional voice actor with serious credits to his name. He's the PTA parent who actually shows up. And now? He's running for office — because if you want change, sometimes you have to be the change.

Jamie is funny, warm, fiercely real, and exactly the kind of voice our communities need amplified right now. You do not want to miss this one.

📲 Follow Jamie on Instagram: @jmcgonnigal 🌈 Learn more about Rainbow Families: rainbowfamilies.org

What happens when a globetrotting teacher finds love between adventures? Pure magic — and a story worth telling.

Danny Neville's life reads like the kind of book you simply cannot put down. While back home in Canada, on a break from teaching abroad, he met the man who would become his husband and the co-architect of an incredible life. Together, they dreamed of building a family — and when they discovered a class at Sherbourne Health designed specifically for dads-to-be, the path forward became clear. Through the help of two extraordinary women  for surrogacy and egg donation, Danny and his husband welcomed two beautiful daughters into the world.

But Danny wasn't done creating. A teacher, librarian, and author, Danny felt a story stirring inside him — one that needed to be told, and one that an oft-overlooked age group desperately needed to see themselves in. His book is tender, intentional, and groundbreaking in the best way.

You are going to want to hear Danny describe it in his own words. 

🔗 Learn more at dannyneville.com 📲 Follow along on Instagram: @dnevillebooks

Want to learn more about the Triggerfish Water Polo team where Danny met the love of his life? Visit: https://www.triggerfishwaterpolo.ca/

Businesses Danny was kind to refer listeners to include: 

Annick Press: https://www.annickpress.com

Sherbourne Health: https://sherbourne.on.ca

Egg Helpers: https://egghelpers.com

Surrogacy in Canada Online: https://surrogacy.ca

CReATe: https://www.createivf.com 

By the time Nate and Jason knew they wanted to become parents, one thing was already clear — adoption was their path. But choosing how to adopt is its own deeply personal journey, and for them, the emotional weight of the foster-to-adopt public system felt like more than they were ready to carry. So they did their research, trusted their instincts, and found their way to American Adoptions.

What drew them in wasn't just the process — it was the philosophy. American Adoptions centres the safety and well-being of not just the babies, but the birthing people too. For Jason and Nate, that commitment wasn't a checkbox. It was everything. (Find them here: https://www.americanadoptions.com)

Then came the pandemic. Becoming new dads in the middle of a global crisis brought its own mountain of challenges, but somewhere inside all of that uncertainty, there was a silver lining neither of them expected: uninterrupted time at home, together, figuring out fatherhood side by side.

Nate and Jason are proof that the road to parenthood doesn't have to look one particular way — it just has to feel right for you.

Want more from this incredible duo? They host their own podcast, 2 Gay Dads, where they continue sharing their story with honesty, humour, and heart.

🎙️ Find them on Instagram: @2_gay_dads | @jmburns83 | @nabrunner

🎧 Listen to their podcast: 2 Gay Dads on Apple Podcasts

Find them on YouTube also: https://www.youtube.com/@2Gay_Dads

What happens when you finally live your truth — but your truth comes with a marriage, kids, and a whole family dynamic that now needs to shift?

In this deeply honest and refreshing part two conversation, I have a chance to sit down with Dr. Lorri Sulpizio — relationship coach, leadership expert, and one of the most compassionate voices in the room when it gets uncomfortable. And today? We're leaning all the way into the uncomfortable.

We're talking about the conversations people whisper about and the situations that make even the most open-minded people squirm: coming out later in life after marriage, navigating the children caught in the middle of that transition, and figuring out how to co-parent with love and respect when everything has changed.

Dr. Lorri brings her signature blend of warmth, wisdom, and zero judgment as we dig into:

• What it really looks like to come out mid-life — and what your kids need from you during that time
• The art (and hard work) of co-parenting after a major identity shift
• How to set boundaries that protect your emotional wellbeing without dismissing the very real feelings of those around you
• Holding space for your children's experience of change while still honouring your own

This episode won't have all the answers — but it will make you feel far less alone, and a whole lot more equipped.

Want to connect with Dr. Lorri or book a session? 

• IG: @lorrisulpizio
• TikTok: @lorri_sulpizio
• Website: lorrisulpizio.com
  

This is the first of two powerful conversations with the incredible Dr. Lorri Sulpizio — and we are diving in. From blended families to birth certificates, this episode is equal parts heartfelt, eye-opening, and long overdue.

Dr. Lorri opens up about her beautifully complex family life — her current spouse, her ex-wife, and the four amazing adults they raised together. But this isn't just a story about family structure. It's a story about what it actually took to become a parent when the system wasn't built for you.

We get into the realities of queer parenthood before marriage equality — what it meant to have no space on a birth certificate for a same-sex partner, navigating IUI, choosing unknown ID donors, and doing it all without a roadmap or a single role model who looked like you. And perhaps most staggeringly: the 8–9 month window during the second-parent adoption process where the non-bio parent had zero legal rights to their own child. Let that sink in.

It's no wonder "who's the real mom?" hits like a gut punch. Parental rights have always been a fight — and this conversation honours everyone who fought it.

🎙️ Connect with Dr. Lorri Sulpizio:

• IG: @lorrisulpizio
• TikTok: @lorri_sulpizio

• • Website: lorrisulpizio.com

Some couples take years to talk about kids. Michael and Andrew needed exactly two dates. From the moment they knew they had a future together, becoming parents wasn't a question of if — it was a question of how.

Their path to parenthood began with conversations about surrogacy, but life had other plans. After watching a close friend navigate foster care in Missouri, they found themselves drawn into a story that would change everything. That friend was fostering a child who would eventually become one of two biological siblings that Michael and Andrew are now raising as their own — with adoption papers officially signed in December 2025.

In this episode, we sit down with Michael and Andrew to talk openly about what the foster-to-adopt process actually looks like in the state of Missouri — the paperwork, the uncertainty, the emotional weight, and the overwhelming joy on the other side of it. They also give us a glimpse into what family life looks like today as things continue to unfold beautifully.

Follow Michael and Andrew on Instagram to watch their family grow: @mlavanier and @drewster23

Sometimes the road to building a family is anything but straight — and Melissa Torres knows that better than most. In this deeply moving episode, Melissa opens up about the winding, emotional, and at times heartbreaking journey she and her wife Vanessa have traveled to become the family of three they are today.

When Melissa and Vanessa first met, they both knew they had inner work ahead of them — but that awareness didn't slow down the pull they felt toward each other. What followed was a love story shaped by complexity, courage, and an unwillingness to give up.

In this episode, Melissa speaks candidly about:

• Growing up in a deeply religious community and the impact that had on her sense of self
• Being raised in a home with foster children and how that shaped her understanding of family
• Coming out later in life — and what it means to finally acknowledge your sexual identity to yourself
• The financial and emotional weight of navigating fertility treatments
• The frightening discovery of polyps and pre-cancerous cells, and what that meant for their path forward

This episode is a reminder that family creation is rarely a straight line — and that the potholes along the way don't have to mean the end of the road.

Follow Melissa: 📸 Instagram: @mel.kay.torres 🎵 TikTok: @torresivf

What do you do when your job takes you away from the little person who needs you most? If you're Cory Allen, you write them a book.

Cory has spent 25 years serving the public — in the military, as a police officer, and in the Secret Service, where he worked alongside Michelle Obama on her iconic Becoming book tour. But ask him what he's most proud of, and the answer has nothing to do with any of that. It's being a dad.

Cory and his husband are parents to an almost two-year-old son, with a daughter set to join their family this spring. When Cory's work began taking him away from home, he found himself wrestling with a question so many travelling parents know all too well: How do I make sure my child feels my love even when I'm not there?

The answer came to him mid-flight to Washington, D.C. He settled in and wrote Dada Takes A Trip — a children's book born from pure parental love, somewhere above the clouds.

In this episode, we sit down with Cory to talk about his remarkable career, the tender heart behind the badge, and how one flight changed his family forever.

In this episode, we cover:

• Cory's 25-year journey through the military, law enforcement, and the Secret Service
• What it was like working alongside Michelle Obama on the Becoming tour
• The challenge of travelling for work as a devoted and present dad
• How and why he wrote Dada Takes A Trip — and what he hopes it means to his son
• Growing their family: welcoming a daughter this spring

Resources & links:

• 📖 Get your copy of Dada Takes A Trip at your favourite local or large chain bookstore
• 🌐 Learn more about Cory: www.coryallenbooks.com
• 📱 Follow Cory on Instagram: @authorcoryallen

⚠️ Content note: This episode includes a frank, detailed discussion of childbirth and the postpartum recovery period. If graphic descriptions of the birthing process aren't something you're comfortable with, you may want to skip this one — and that's completely okay.

We're back with Emily and Sarah for Part Two of their family-building journey — and this episode is the one we've all been waiting for. The baby is here.

In today's conversation, Emily and Sarah share their birth story in their own words, together. They don't hold back. They speak honestly about the full arc of labour and delivery, the rawness of recovery, and what it truly feels like when the person you love most in the world becomes a parent alongside you.

This episode also touches on something rarely celebrated openly: the beautiful, practical reality of having two people in the same household who can breastfeed and nourish their baby. It's a unique and joyful dimension of their family that deserves its own moment in the spotlight.

And through it all — the hard parts and the breathtaking parts — what shines brightest is just how completely and wonderfully all-consuming new parenthood is.

In Part Two, we cover:

• The full birth story, told by both Sarah and Emily
• Labour, delivery, and the recovery journey — spoken about honestly and without filters
• The joy of shared feeding and what that's meant for their family
• The beautiful overwhelm of becoming parents

Missed Part One? Go back and listen to Emily and Sarah's fertility journey — from egg retrieval to the final days of pregnancy — before diving in here.