Membaca judul artikel ini, mungkin ada yang menyeletuk “aneh!”. Bahkan mungkin sesama gay pun akan berpikir demikian. Sebelum menyeletuk, baca dulu cerita selengkapnya, ok?
Di usia 20, warga New York – Digby du Pont – punya kehidupan yang diinginkan semua orang. Bayangkan saja. Digby sudah berkelana 7 benua termasuk ke Taj Mahal, Piramid Giza dan berlayar melewati Lautan Hindia. Pakaian dan asesoris Digby pun sangat mahal, seperti sepatu Bloomingdales, jam Cartier, dll. Digby juga sering makan malam dekat para celebriti di restoran ekslusif New York. Digby itu ternyata cuma BONEKA !!! Meski cuma benda mati, Digby sangat dimanja oleh kedua ayahnya yang merupakan pasangan gay: Mark Kirby dan A.J Sapolnick
Keduanya tidak pernah merencanakan akan punya anak boneka. Semua bermula ketika satu persatu dari teman mereka punya anak. Teman-teman mereka pun sering memamerkan foto anak mereka. Mark dan AJ iri hati. Mereka pun mau punya naka tapi apa daya, Amerika Serikat saat itu melarang pasangan gay untuk mengadopsi anak. Bahkan di zaman itu, konsep gay bukan penyakit masih terbilang baru dan kontroversi.
Digby ‘diadopsi’ di Paris, tepatnya di sebuah toko loak di tahun 1990. Kedua gay itu langsung suka dan membeli boneka seharga 4 poundsterling yang kelak dinamai Digby. Digby saat itu sangat kotor dan bulukan, juga bugil. Dengan penuh kasih sayang, mereka membersihkan Digby dan memakaikan baju.
Biarpun hanya boneka, Digby dan orangtua gaynya sudah melalang buana ke 7 benua (lebih dari 100 negara). Dan sudah berfoto sekitar 13,000 kali. Saking sayangnya, Mark dan AJ menganggap Digby sebagai MANUSIA VINYL, bukan boneka. Digby diperlakukan seperti layaknya bayi sungguhan.
Namun tidak mudah mengajak Digby berkeliling dunia karena Mark dan AJ sering dicurigai sebagai pengedar narkoba yang menyelundupkan barang terlarang di dalam badan Digby. Digby pernah ‘dipenggal’ di Mesir ketika penjaga perbatasan ngotot mau mencopot kepala Digby untuk memeriksa isi boneka itu. Keduanya kontan protes karena melihat Digby ‘dipenggal’ akan sangat traumatis, belum lagi repot memasangkan kepalanya kembali.
Digby selalu duduk di kursi tersendiri dalam pesawat (meski tidak membayar tiket). Digby juga punya PASPOR sendiri! Di beberapa negara, kalo petugasnya punya rasa humor, paspor Digby akan distempel. Ke mana pun Digby pergi, orang-orang terpesona dengan sang boneka. Bahkan Digby pernah hampir dirampok ketika dia mengunjungi Tembok Besar China bersama orangtuanya.
Seorang USKUP, Richard Chartes, bahkan menawari PEMBAPTISAN untuk snag boneka! Namun ditolak pasangan gay itu dengan alasan Digby itu keturunan Yahudi! Keluarga unik itu menjadi buah bibir ke mana pun mereka pergi. Sering, orang-orang tak dikenal mengirim mereka email positif, hanya sekedar memberitahu bahwa mereka pernah melihat Digby ketika keluarga unik itu berlibur.
Digby mungkin cuma boneka. Tapi kasih sayang yang didapat Digby merupakan bukti kuat bahwa pasangan gay pun bisa jadi orangtua yang baik, bahkan lebih hebat dibanding kaum heteroseks. Jadi, apa hak istimewa yang dimiliki masyarakat melarang gay mengadopsi anak? Apalagi faktanya, banyak anak telantar, bayi aborsi, dan keluarga broken home – hasil produk keluarga heteroseks yang katanya direstui tuhan.
sumber : ide gue blogspotAt the age of 20, New Yorker Digby du Pont can thank his parents for a life that would make most envious. With his well-heeled parents he has travelled to all seven continents, visiting the Taj Mahal in India and the Pyramids at Giza, and cruising in the Indian Ocean along the way.
Dressed in the finest clothes and jewellery, Digby has sat down for dinner next to celebrities at some of New York’s most exclusive restaurants. He has even turned down an offer to be baptised by the Bishop of London. Digby is a plastic doll. But that hasn’t stopped his two dads treating him like a real son for the past 21 years. him in shoes from Bloomingdales and giving him a Cartier watch, Mark Kirby and A.J Sapolnick have become so attached to their doll son that friends have taken to calling them ‘The Digbys’.
‘We found Digby in a Paris flea market in 1990 and we both had an immediate connection with him,’ said Mark, who has lived with AJ for the past 26 years. We haggled over his price and paid £4 for him. He was a total mess, covered in mouldy dew and was not wearing any clothes. We brought him back to our room and cleaned him up and it was there that our family began. Even though finding Digby in Paris came through chance, Mark and AJ were in fact on the lookout for a suitable child to adopt.
‘Around that time we had a lot of friends that were beginning to have children and this was interfering with our social life,’ said AJ. ‘They couldn’t go anywhere because of their children and they would bore you with photographs. ‘So I said to Mark that we should have ourselves a baby who wouldn’t interfere with our social lives. So that was when we decided to have a doll baby.’You have to understand that this was back when gay people had just begun adopting children and in some states in America it is still illegal. ‘This was a conscious choice for us. We never wanted to adopt a baby, Digby was perfect for us. ‘Digby would be our chance to bore our friends with our pictures!’
As a thoroughly modern family, the Digbys have traveled across all seven continents, to over 100 different countries and taken more than 13,000 holiday snaps of them and their vinyl baby along the way. For Mark and A.J, their love of Digby has reached a point where to describe him as a doll is viewed by them as a four-letter word, literally.
‘We consider Digby to be a vinyl person, not a doll,’ said Mark. ‘When we travel abroad Digby usually gets a seat on the plane, although I must add that we don’t pay for a separate one for him. We put him on a spare seat if there is one and Digby usually manages to get his own seat.’ But travelling everywhere with a plastic doll has it’s drawbacks. ‘One of main worries when we first started traveling with Digby was that we would be mistaken for drug runners,’ Mark continued. Once in Egypt a border guard wanted to take his head off and we simply wouldn’t allow it. ‘We would never allow him to be taken apart, it would be traumatic and also too difficult to be put him back together. ‘He has traveled so much that he has his own passport. Passport control in some countries stamp it when they have a sense of humour. Since 9/11 we are careful not to push anyone with this, although we appreciate it when they do.’
Mark and AJ have mapped out Digby’s life through his clothes and on special occasions the three even wear identical outfits.At the beginning we dressed him as a baby in baby clothes,’ said Mark And as the years have gone on we have had clothes made for him on our travels in Thailand and India. Here in New York City we know a lady who creates clothes for him. Digby’s wardrobe has 300 different items and includes pin-stripe suits, safari outfits and white silk suits. We couldn’t put a value on what we have spent on his clothes even if we wanted to, we have never thought about it.’
Beginning taking pictures of Digby and themselves on holiday and around New York City, Mark and AJ have marked all the important events in their 20 year-old-vinyl son’s life. Digby celebrates his birthday every year on April 21st,’ explained Mark ‘He has had themed birthdays at home and we have had one in Central Park. ‘And to mark his Jewish heritage he has gone through his Bar-Mitzvah too. We have even given him a full name too, which is Digby du Pont, in honour of his French heritage and how he was found under a bridge at the flea market. Although he only goes by that moniker when he is submitting a letter for publication.’
Digby has become so famous that his celebrity is anticipated at some of the most exclusive restaurants in the world. ‘We were at dinner at the exclusive Cipriani restaurant in Venice and the management insisted that Digby not be perched on the edge of the table,’ said A.J Usually he is seated next to us on his own chair and sometimes we have a glass of milk brought over so that he isn’t left out ‘One time at Le Cirque restaurant in New York we and Digby were sat next to Sarah Ferguson.’ It is the reaction of other people to Digby that is the most magical aspect of life with Digby for his fathers. We have been mobbed at the Great Wall of China with Digby,’ said Mark. He becomes the star of the trip we are on, with fellow hotel or cruise guests becoming intrigued as to what he will wear that evening along with ourselves. ‘Once on an Indian cruise from Chennai to Mumbai Richard Chartes, the Bishop of London become so enamoured with Digby that he wanted to baptise him. We told him that Digby had no interest in this because he was Jewish.’
Mark and AJ were once listed by their phone company as the Digbys and their car licence plate is also Digby. Around New York me or Mark will take him out with us for lunch or at night we will dress him in his own pyjamas and sometimes even watch television in bed with him,’ said AJ.
‘People have been emailing or commenting online that they have seen us during our travels. ‘Digby has affected many people all across the world. Digby and us is a story that we are happy to tell.’
source : www.dailymail.co.uk
