Should adults’ needs come before children’s needs?
Katy Faust is the founder and president of Them Before Us, a global children’s rights organization. Her parents divorced when she was 10, after which her mother re-partnered with a woman. Although this arrangement worked well for Katy, and she maintains strong relationships with her mother and her partner as well as with her father, it appears to have shaped a lasting and unusually thoughtful concern for children’s rights.
She began writing anonymously in 2012 about why marriage is a matter of justice for children, and founded Them Before Us in 2018. Since then, she has spoken at the UN, presented to foreign parliaments, and submitted amicus briefs to the US Supreme Court. She is the author of three books, including Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children’s Rights Movement.
In this episode, Katy discusses why children’s rights should sit at the center of debates about marriage, divorce, surrogacy, and donor conception. She explains the close relationship between marriage law and parenting law, arguing that when marriage is redefined, parenthood is inevitably reshaped as well. Drawing on her experience working in adoption and youth ministry, she makes the case that children who lose a mother or a father, whether through divorce, donor conception, or surrogacy, carry that loss with them over time. When adult fulfillment becomes the primary priority, she argues, children are the ones who ultimately bear the cost.
Links
Katy Faust
Them Before Us: https://thembeforeus.com/
Website: https://katyfaust.com/
Substack:
Books
Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children’s Rights Movement (2021): https://www.amazon.com/Them-Before-Us-Childrens-Movement/dp/1642935964
Raising Conservative Kids in a Woke City (2023): https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Conservative-Kids-Woke-City/dp/B0BYXFXL18
Pro-Child Politics (2025): https://www.amazon.com/Pro-Child-Politics-Cultural-Economic-National/dp/B0D6LT3ZB3
Referenced in the episode
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child
Genspect MoU on the Role of Puberty: https://protectingpuberty.com/
