One short year ago, Kordale and Kaleb were a pair of gay black fathers quietly raising their three beautiful children and going about their lives like any other parents. Today, they're starring in a new campaign for Nikon with their kids.
The queer couple is the focus of Nikon's "I Am Generation Image" campaign, which features the family sharing their inspiring story through a new video.
Nikon's "I Am Generation Image" site states:
More than any before, this generation speaks through its images. So we sent a Nikon camera on a journey to help seven people, with something to say, make their mark.
See what they said with their images. Then make a statement of your own.
Kordale and Kaleb's story went viral last year when the pair posted on Instagram a photo of their family getting ready in the morning, which then inspired extreme homophobic backlash. The criticism seemed to come mainly from Twitter users who took issue with the idea of two gay black men raising children together.
In light of the new campaign and all that has transpired over the past year, Kordale and Kaleb provided The Huffington Post with the following statement:
With our picture going viral and now this video of our life, we feel that our life has changed to the extent of how people may view us. We feel that there are a lot of people looking at us as an example within the LGBTQ community -- which is an awesome thing. Being homosexual is not as taboo as it once was and it has become more acceptable in today’s time. Yes, there will be those people who do not agree and will post negative comments or snarl their faces, but there are much more people who do agree and commend us as fathers and community activists. There are a lot of people who do not know us and assume the worst about our parenthood! Some people feel that our children are confused because their mother is not involved, which is not true. For example, a lot of people do not know the mother of our children and the relationship we have with her. Recently she moved to Atlanta and she sees the kids more than twice a month.
From this experience we want to teach our kids about diversity and equality. We want our children to know that people are different and each individual is composed of many facets that make him or her who he or she is -- not to judge on individuality but to love and embrace. Our children are aware of the dynamics in our household, as well as the many different people who are in our lives. They understand that some men date men, some women date women and some women date men, etc… With this said, we instill in our children equality despite the inequality we have received as gay men through things such as marriage laws. Our children are ready for us to wed but they do not truly grasp the reasons as to why we are not allowed to get married as two men who love one another in our home state of Georgia -- this is the real injustice. However, we will still inculcate great characteristics upon our children that will help make this a better and unbiased world.