A viral video celebrating a gay couple’s surrogacy journey has sparked outrage after it emerged that one of the men is a registered child sex offender who obtained custody of a newborn baby through a legal loophole that bypasses adoption restrictions.
Brandon Keith Mitchell, who appears in the widely shared video with his husband Logan Riley and their infant son, is a Tier 1 sex offender in Pennsylvania who was convicted in 2016 for the sexual exploitation of a minor whilst working as a high school chemistry teacher.
The revelation has raised urgent questions about child safeguarding in surrogacy arrangements and prompted calls for immediate investigation by authorities.
Viral Video Sparks Investigation
The couple’s video, originally posted to showcase their “surrogacy journey”, gained widespread attention after being reposted on 27 July by Irish activist Derek Blighe on X (formerly Twitter), garnering over one million views.
“Unless a miracle happens, this child has almost no chance at a normal life,” Blighe wrote, drawing criticism from same-sex adoption advocates who dismissed his concerns as homophobic.
“That is homophobic. If the child has two loving male parents, there is no evidence whatsoever that he or she will not prosper,” replied Bev Jackson of Alliance LGB.
However, within 24 hours of the video going viral, investigative reporting by Reduxx confirmed that Mitchell is a registered sex offender, transforming what began as a social media debate into serious child protection concerns.
Teacher’s Criminal Conviction
According to records from the Chester County District Attorney’s Office and Downingtown Police Department, Mitchell was arrested on 3 February 2016 after a months-long investigation into his conduct with a 16-year-old male student at Downingtown West High School.
The investigation revealed that Mitchell, then 30, had exchanged over 12,000 text messages with the victim between May 2013 and December 2014. Police found that Mitchell had solicited nude photographs from the student, sent approximately 20 nude photographs of himself, and told the victim he wanted to watch him engage in sexual acts.
“Police also recovered hundreds of other sexually explicit videos of the child on Mitchell’s laptop computer,” according to court documents.
Mitchell was charged with multiple felonies including possession of child pornography, sexual abuse of children, endangering the welfare of children, and corruption of minors. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to up to 23 months of incarceration, though court records show he was granted parole just two months after conviction.
Concealed Criminal History
Following his conviction, Mitchell was required to surrender his teaching licence and prohibited from unsupervised contact with minors. He subsequently obtained employment as a chemist at Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing in Lancaster, where he has worked for nine years.
In 2021, Mitchell married Logan Riley, a second-grade teacher from Maryland. The couple launched a GoFundMe in 2023 to raise money for surrogacy, with Mitchell advertising the fundraiser on his LinkedIn profile.
The fundraising page, which raised just over £1,600 ($2,000) of their £39,000 ($50,000) goal, made no mention of Mitchell’s criminal history or sex offender status.
“My name is Logan and I am a 2nd grade teacher,” the GoFundMe description read. “My fiancé’s name is Brandon and he works in a pharmaceutical laboratory… He values family and friends and he is excited to start our new family.”
Legal Loophole Exposed
Pennsylvania State Police confirmed to Reduxx that whilst the state’s adoption laws prohibit sex offenders from adopting or fostering children, gestational surrogacy arrangements circumvent these protections through pre-birth parentage orders.
Pennsylvania is considered a “surrogate-friendly” state where intended parents can obtain pre-birth orders during the surrogate’s second trimester, declaring them as legal parents and placing their names on the birth certificate without undergoing the screening required for adoption.
“The state does not automatically forbid individuals convicted of sex crimes from having children, gaining custody, or exercising parental rights,” Pennsylvania State Police confirmed.
It remains unclear whether the surrogate was informed of Mitchell’s sex offender status before agreeing to the arrangement.
Calls for Investigation
Helen Gibson of Surrogacy Concern expressed outrage at the revelation and called for immediate action by authorities.
“If it is correct that one of these men is a convicted sex offender then this is deeply concerning. Local authorities must investigate immediately, including exploring removal of the child as an urgent consideration,” she said.
Gibson noted this was not the first case of a sex offender obtaining a child through surrogacy: “Unfortunately this is not the first case of a sex offender procuring a child from a surrogate mother that we have come across; we fear this is the tip of the iceberg.”
Systemic Safeguarding Failures
The case has exposed significant gaps in child protection measures within commercial surrogacy arrangements. Unlike adoption, which requires extensive background checks and home studies, surrogacy in many US states involves minimal vetting of intended parents.
“Vetting of commissioning parents in surrogacy is virtually nonexistent and is not comparable with checks we see in adoption,” Gibson explained.
Surrogacy Concern, which campaigns against the commercialisation of surrogacy, argues that the practice inherently lacks adequate safeguarding measures.
“Surrogacy is not a child centered act,” Gibson stated. “Removing a child from their birth mother and primary safeguarding is cruel, unethical and as we see in cases such as this, potentially enabling child abuse.”
Broader Implications
The case raises fundamental questions about the regulation of surrogacy arrangements and the protection of children born through these agreements. Whilst adoption laws have evolved over decades to prioritise child welfare through extensive screening procedures, surrogacy operates in a largely unregulated space in many jurisdictions.
Critics argue that pre-birth parentage orders, designed to provide legal certainty for intended parents, effectively bypass crucial safeguarding measures that would identify risks to children.
“There is no safe or ethical form of surrogacy which could be delivered by ‘better regulation’: we need a global ban on surrogacy for all and we need it now. Children must come first,” Gibson concluded.
The case continues to develop as authorities consider their response to this unprecedented situation involving a convicted sex offender gaining custody of an infant through commercial surrogacy arrangements.
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