Baby Found in Subway: Gay Couple Adopt Abandoned NY Baby, Making Film
A baby found in the subway has been adopted and brought up by a gay couple who found him. The story has recently been highlighted by various media sources, and has since gone viral.
Danny Stewart found the baby boy in a New York City subway station in August 2000, according to The New York Times. He has described how he found what he believed to be a doll abandoned on a stairway in a subway station. However, upon closer inspection he realized it was a living breathing baby boy.
The baby still had his umbilical cord attached, indicating that he had been born very recently.
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Stewart, a social worker himself, immediately called the police to report the found baby.
However, minutes later he also called his partner, Peter Mercurio, panicking saying that he had found a baby and called 911 but that he thought they had not believed him.
Mercurio soon arrived at the scene as well, and the two waited together until authorities finally came and took the baby into their custody.
Later that year, the future of the baby was being discussed in court, and Stewart was asked to appear to testify about the circumstances of finding the baby.
However, as proceedings continued the judge suddenly asked, "Would you be interested in adopting this baby?"
Even though Stewart was put on the spot and had not asked his partner, he replied in the affirmative to the judge. Later he would tell Mercurio about what he had agreed to, and his partner was initially furious about not being consulted about such a decision.
However, the couple soon realized that this could be their only chance to adopt a baby together, and they agreed to push forward to adopt the baby boy.
In an amazing twist, the couple was authorized and given custody of the child with just 36 hours notice, and they were living together before Christmas that year.
The couple renamed the boy Kevin - he was initially named "Baby ACE" as he was found at a subway station connecting the A, C and E lines.
Twelve years later, in 2011, the couple decided to participate in a wedding ceremony after gay marriage was legalized in New York state. The couple contacted the judge who had granted them custody of Kevin more than a decade before, asking her to officiate their wedding - to which she immediately agreed.
Mercurio, a playwright, is now turning their story into a new film called "Found."
