Zoe and Vanessa are wonderfully developed, flawed characters, and I’m glad that Picoult chose to show characters rather than just present her take on the issue. Picoult clearly shows her belief that gay couples should be allowed as much right to parent as straight couples, and while I completely agree with her, I’m also glad she made Zoe’s lawyer as arrogant and focused on political agenda as Max’s lawyer is. While I can’t personally understand Max’s pastor’s position, I think Picoult shows well how thoroughly he believes what he says, and so his motivation, however misguided I think it, is primarily to provide for the spiritual welfare of the people at his church. Even Max, the “bad guy,” is a sympathetic character, a recovering alcoholic who has found solace and a community in church, and is genuinely trying to reconcile his newfound beliefs about morality with his knowledge that Zoe is really a good person and would become a good mother. Picoult handles the issue well, presenting both sides fairly. He believes homosexuality is a sin, and would rather his and Zoe’s embryos be implanted in his sister-in-law’s womb, for her and Max’s brother to raise in a Christian household. Unfortunately, since the divorce, Max has become a member of a conservative Christian church. Music therapist Zoe and her partner Vanessa want to have a baby, using frozen embryos from the time Zoe and her ex-husband Max tried to have their own baby.

In Sing Yo u Home, Jodi Picoult explores the issue of gay parenting.

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