It’s not easy for queer people to have babies. It’s not as simple as a turkey baster and legs up in the air. First, you have to find a sperm donor and as sperm banks have rules about who can receive their sperm, many queer people choose friends as donors. However, trans performer Krishna Istha has widened the search and until 11 November is interviewing prospective donors at the Battersea Arts Centre so they and their partner can have a child. Their donor could be you.
However, don’t expect the usual questions. Instead, Istha is more interested in what music the prospective donors like or whether they can play an instrument. There are questions about favourite TV shows and family secrets. There’s hardly any about health or sexuality. And in a truly inclusive move, it’s not even necessary to be a cisgendered man to be considered. Anyone can sign up for the interview process.
On press night and weekday evenings, the interviews go on for three hours while on Saturdays they last all day to become almost a form of durational performance art. But you can come and go as you please within your slots. Each interviewee has around ten minutes in the spotlight while Istha asks questions selected at random from a tablet. The atmosphere is light and Istha is a relaxed performer immediately putting the volunteers at ease.
As well as discovering what reality shows the prospective donors like, we also find out more about Istha’s decision to have children. They always knew that they wanted a child and Istha and their partner had thought about adoption, but at the moment adoption services don’t place children with trans couples. They have a schedule too; Ishta would like to pregnant in two years’ time after they’ve stopped taking testosterone.
Although Istha’s light touch is vital to ensure that the process is safe, it’s a shame that a few of the questions are not more probing. Still, there are some heartbreaking moments when one volunteer, estranged from their family hopes that any children that they have don’t have to meet their grandparents and when another volunteer announces that they have delayed Hormone Replacement Therapy in order that they can donate sperm at a sperm bank.
Occasionally between interviews, infomercials play on the two screens. One trans person talks of their difficulties in obtaining sperm from a sperm bank, exacerbated as their passport states that they are male. And it’s almost impossible to find sperm donated by black people. CJ River talks of the queer collective in America which helped them conceive when all official options had run dry.
Krishna Istha plans to interview 126 people over the next coming days, the sheer amount of people making the durational structure of the show necessary. This is a labour of love in every sense.
Runs until 11 November 2023
The Reviews Hub Score
A labour of love
