BEVERLY HILLS – “Getting married and having a baby is something I was taught to want, and now I want it,” said Tony Brown, who will be featured this week in a new CNN documentary.

“In America: Gary & Tony Have A Baby,” hosted by Soledad O’Brien, will premiere on CNN at 5 p.m. Thursday, June 24, with repeated airings through June 27.

Brown and his partner Gary Spino have been LGBT activists, fighting for gay rights all of their lives, but one of the biggest challenges they have faced is forming a traditional family. The one-hour documentary follows their struggle to have a baby that has a biological and legal connection to both of them.

Throughout the documentary, viewers see the couple as they spend nearly $100,000 throughout the long process, which included hiring an egg donor and a surrogate, which was followed by a string of court battles.

Brown noted that he already has a biological daughter, Piper, as he donated his sperm to a lesbian couple who carried and raise the girl. The men, however, longed for a child that was completely their own.

About 50 people gathered recently at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills to preview the documentary. The event, which included a reception, was sponsored by CNN and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Mixed in with the crowd of journalists, publicists and others were well-known LGBT community supporters such as Meredith Baxter, Wilson Cruz, Taylor Dayne and Marissa Jaret Winokur.

After the screening, O’Brien moderated a Q&A panel, which included Brown; Jarrett Barios, president of GLAAD; Todd Holland, TV and film director and producer; Scotch Ellis Loring, actor and partner of Holland; and Stuart Miller, CEO of Growing Generations, a surrogacy agency.

When asked why people come to his agency, Miller cited two reasons: “My clients desire a biological connection and they want to build a family from the beginning.” Most of his clients have decided that adoption just is not enough and long for the special bond that is created when a child is birthed from the beginning.

“Would you tell a heterosexual couple that they should adopt?” Miller asked rhetorically. Brown and Spino were not clients of Miller’s, but worked with a similar agency.

Brown discussed the legal challenges he and Spino faced throughout the process. They had to sue the surrogate mother and her husband to have their names legally removed from the birth certificate. While the surrogates did not contest this as it was simply part of the process, it shows the difficulties that gay couples must endure in order to birth a child in this manner.

Brown noted the irony of having to go to a court in Charlotte, N.C., and being required to swear to tell the truth with his hand on a Bible.

The surrogate couple, called “Cindy” and “John” in the documentary, did not want to reveal their real names. They live in a small town in North Carolina and feared that some of their friends and neighbors would judge them for choosing to carry a baby for a gay couple. Cindy and John received nearly $30,000 for being a surrogate.

Barrios, Holland and Loring, who all have children, agreed that raising kids is one of the greatest joys anyone can have. Loring, who has a pair of infant triplets with Holland, said that “times disappears when you have a baby.” Barrios, whose children are now teenagers, agreed, although he says they keep him very busy.

Barrios is concerned, however, about how some children of gay and lesbian parents are treated by their peers.

“At GLAAD we talk about achieving not only legal equality, but full equality,” he said, meaning that full equality is a step beyond gaining rights and recognitions, but achieving acceptance from all. “No law will change the fact that my son is made fun on the ballfield.”

When asked what impact she believes her work has on America, O’Brien humbly said, “My job is to do the story as authentically as I can.”

Brown thanked O’Brien for taking on his story.

“These stories are not told enough, and now I will have something to show Nicholas. It will tell his story,” Brown said.

Holland noted that what seems to be most threatening about gays and lesbians becoming parents is that “it makes us more normal to the viewing public.”

Miller and Barrios agreed that programs like this reach Middle America and that is where the real change happens.

“It is important that we care about what happens in the media,” Barrios said. “Middle America finds us here.”

The details

“In America: Gary & Tony Have A Baby” is part of CNN’s “Gay In America” documentary series. The network plans to follow the stories of other parts of the LGBT community including African-American lesbians, transgender people and gay youths struggling in school.

For more information, click HERE.

"Gary & Tony" airs at 5, 8 and 11 p.m. June 24, June 26 and June 27 and at 1 a.m. June 25.