Brüno starts a 'Gayby' boom

This quiet trend has finally poked its way to public attention with the sight of Brüno - the crazed Austrian fashionista played by Sacha Baron Cohen - sitting with a little African baby on his lap, bragging that ever since Madonna went to Malawi it's become the essential fashion accessory, dah-ling.

Of course, there have always been gay parents, but in the past they were trapped in the loveless marriages of the closet. Now they are out in the open, and increasing in number.

Many of my gay friends are going the same way as my straight friends as we all sag into our thirties.

Gay celebs are just part of this trend: John Barrowman is planning to adopt with his partner Scott Gill, as is Queen Latifah. I was recently sounded out by a lesbian couple I know and love as a possible gay daddy, and I was broodily tempted.

This is all part of a slow shift that is transforming gay culture. During the 20th century our battle was to find a place of our own where we could be safely different and recover some shreds of self-esteem. After millennia of being told our difference was a sickness we needed a moment to celebrate that difference.

But after that was achieved, our goal changed. We started to realise - once we had the space - that we are actually very similar to our straight siblings.

We have the same desire for stability and home-building as everyone else. Our tune changed from "I Am What I Am" to "I Am What You Are". We wanted enough basic equality to have everything straight people have. It started with demands for marriage - and the logical next step is children. We want the chance to show we are as dull and suburban as everybody else.

It used to be that when you came out, your mother would give you a hug, say she loved you, and offer a sad aside to her friends that she would never have grandchildren.

That's not the case any more. When I was a kid in the Eighties and realised I was gay, it never occurred to me that I would grow up to create a family of my own - it was a bleak and alienating thought.

But in the Nineties, when I saw so many gay people doing just that, I felt like I had the option to be part of the great human slipstream of procreation.

The children of gay couples are desperately and passionately wanted.

They are, by definition, planned, with parents who have to go to a great deal of hassle and heart-searching before they are created. Compare that with the number of kids idly conceived in a five-minute shag at a bus stop.

But obviously, every parent wants the best for their child - and many gay parents were inhibited by the idea that their child would be somehow disadvantaged.

Would my son be picked on? Would my daughter be confused by having gay parents? It would not be worth repairing our self-esteem at the expense of damaging our children's.

Now the evidence is in. There have been more than 100 scientific studies of the grown-up children of gay parents, and they overwhelmingly find the same thing.

Professor Ellen C Perrin, MD of Tufts University School of Medicine explains: "The vast consensus of all the studies is that children of same-sex parents do as well as children whose parents are heterosexual."

Some 90 per cent of them grow up to be straight - just like in every family. They are no more or less likely to be abused, depressed, or confused.

And they love their parents, like we all do. "What is striking is that these are very consistent findings," says Perrin.

Under the sheer weight of scientific evidence, anybody who continues to oppose gay parents is letting their prejudice cloud their judgment.

There is a new gay anthem in town (with apologies to The Shirelles): Gayby, It's You.

Johann Hari writes for The Independent.