A viral video showcasing a gay couple’s surrogacy journey has sparked outrage after it was revealed that one of the men, Brandon Keith Mitchell, is a registered child sex offender in Pennsylvania.

The couple, Mitchell and his husband Logan Riley, gained widespread attention after sharing a video introducing their newborn son, born via surrogacy.

The video, initially posted on their personal social media accounts, was reposted on July 27, 2025, by Irish activist Derek Blighe on X, drawing over one million views.

"Unless a miracle happens, this child has almost no chance at a normal life," Blighe wrote in the caption, according to the original post on X.

His statement faced backlash from advocates of same-sex adoption, who labeled it homophobic.

However, within 24 hours, public records confirmed Mitchell’s status as a Tier 1 sex offender, prompting widespread concern.

Mitchell, now 39, was convicted in 2016 for soliciting nude photographs from a 16-year-old male student at Downingtown West High School in Pennsylvania, where he worked as a chemistry teacher.

According to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office and Downingtown Police Department, Mitchell exchanged over 12,000 text messages with the victim between May 2013 and December 2014.

He sent approximately 20 nude photos of himself to the minor and instructed the victim to delete their conversations.

A police search of Mitchell’s electronic devices uncovered hundreds of sexually explicit videos of the child.

Mitchell pleaded guilty to felony child pornography possession and one count of Corruption of Minors.

He was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison but was granted parole after just two months.

His parole conditions included no unsupervised contact with minors and surrendering his teaching license.

Mitchell now works as a chemist at Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a position he has held for nine years.

In 2021, Mitchell married Logan Riley, a second-grade teacher from Maryland, and the couple moved to Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania. In 2023, they launched a GoFundMe campaign to fund their surrogacy journey, raising just over $2,000 of a $50,000 goal.

The campaign described Riley as a teacher who enjoys swimming and teaching, and Mitchell as a pharmaceutical lab worker with interests in travel, politics, and history.

The description did not disclose Mitchell’s criminal history.

"My name is Logan and I am a 2nd grade teacher. I am from Annapolis, MD and teach outside of Baltimore City. I enjoy the beach, swimming, and anything that involves water. I swam in both high school and college and lifeguarded during the summers. I enjoy being around friends and family and love teaching" the GoFundMe stated. "My fiancé’s name is Brandon and he works in a pharmaceutical laboratory. He is from Lancaster, PA and works outside of the city. He enjoys traveling as he used to live in England and South Africa. He also enjoys politics, history, and experiencing other cultures. He values family and friends and he is excited to start our new family."

In November 2023, Riley updated the campaign, announcing they had secured a surrogate.

"Our surrogate went through extensive medical and social worker evaluations in order to be approved for surrogacy. Once approved, the lengthy legal and financial process began. We are so excited that our amazing surrogate will carry one of our embryos for us, helping to expand our family," Riley wrote, signing the update as "Future Fathers, Logan and Brandon."

Pennsylvania’s surrogacy laws allow intended parents to obtain a pre-birth parentage order, typically in the second trimester, declaring them the legal parents and placing their names on the birth certificate.

While state adoption laws prohibit sex offenders from adopting or fostering, gestational surrogacy bypasses these restrictions. The Pennsylvania State Police, responsible for maintaining Mitchell’s sex offender registration, confirmed to Reduxx that the state does not automatically bar convicted sex offenders from having children, gaining custody, or exercising parental rights.

It remains unclear whether the surrogate was informed of Mitchell’s criminal history.

Helen Gibson of Surrogacy Concern, a UK-based group opposing surrogacy and egg harvesting, called for an urgent investigation.

“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,” Gibson told Reduxx.

She added, "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. Vetting of commissioning parents in surrogacy is virtually nonexistent and is not comparable with checks we see in adoption."

Gibson further criticized surrogacy practices, stating, "Surrogacy is not a child centered act. 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. 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."

The case has raised questions about the regulation of surrogacy in Pennsylvania, a state considered “surrogate-friendly” due to its permissive laws.

Authorities have not yet commented on whether an investigation into the child’s welfare is underway.

This is a developing story, and it’s one that hits hard.

A convicted sex offender, through a loophole in the system, now has custody of a newborn, and the public is rightly asking: how could this happen?

The lack of oversight in surrogacy laws, compared to the strict vetting in adoption, is a glaring issue that demands answers.

We’ve got a system so broken, so corrupt, that it allows homosexual couples to parade around with children, and worse—child predators, convicted pedophiles, are getting their hands on innocent babies through surrogacy.

Nobody’s vetting these people, nobody’s stopping this madness, and it’s putting children in danger.