A viral video of two homosexual “fathers” joyously kissing an infant boy they adopted has, unhappily for one of the “dads,” dredged up his diabolical past.
Brandon Keith Mitchell is a convicted sex offender, particularly partial to child porn and underage boys. He and his “husband,” Logan Riley, procured the child from a surrogate mother.
Pennsylvania law permitted the pair to take custody of the unfortunate infant because a surrogate was involved.
The Video
Social media trouble began for the homosexuals with disturbing video of them celebrating the infant’s first year of life, Reduxx reported. It shows the two repeatedly kissing the unfortunate boy and blowing out a candle on a cupcake.
Irish conservative Derek Blighe posted the video with this message: “Unless a miracle happens, this child has almost no chance at a normal life.”
The video suggests Blighe might be understating the kid’s problem. But that aside, as Reduxx reported, “the couple’s identities were not publicly known, and Blighe’s post drew criticism and ridicule, particularly from advocates of same-sex adoption, who dismissed his concerns as homophobic.”
So the Lavender Lobby turned pink with rage. After all, “if the child has two loving male parents, there is no evidence whatsoever that he or she will not prosper,” wrote Bev Jackson of LGB Alliance.
Another response, Reduxx reported, drew 200,000 likes: “Makes me happy. That baby is going to be raised not to hate people and will be loved.”
The Crime
“But just 24 hours after the video went viral on social media, it has been confirmed that one of the men in the video is a registered child sex offender,” Reduxx continued:
Brandon Keith Mitchell is a Tier 1 sex offender in the state of Pennsylvania, and was arrested in 2016 after attempting to solicit a 16-year-old boy for sexual abuse. The victim in the case was a student at Downingtown West High School, where Mitchell had worked as a chemistry teacher. He was 30 years old at the time.
According to records released by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office and the Downingtown Police Department, Mitchell solicited the boy to send him nude photographs. He also told the victim he wanted to watch him masturbate and sent the victim approximately 20 nude photographs of himself.
Police executed a search warrant of the teacher’s electronic devices and phone records, which revealed that he exchanged over 12,000 text messages with the victim. These conversations lasted from May 2013 until December 2014. Mitchell had instructed the victim to delete their conversations.
Police also recovered hundreds of other sexually explicit videos of the child on Mitchell’s laptop computer.
The Times of Chester County reported that Mitchell also asked the victim to perform oral sex on him after high school graduation. Mitchell stored “a sexually explicit video of the victim” on his laptop, the newspaper reported.
Despite a sentence of 23 months behind bars for felony child-porn possession and corrupting a minor, Mitchell served just two months. Part of his punishment was “no unsupervised contact with minors and that he surrender his teaching license,” Reduxx reported.
Since then, he has worked as a chemist.
GoFundMe Omission
In 2021, Reduxx continued, Mitchell “married” Riley, who, frighteningly enough, was teaching second grade in Maryland. They moved to Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania, and in 2023, opened a GoFundMe campaign to haul in the cash to pay for a surrogate mother. Mitchell advertised the scheme on LinkedIn.
Reduxx reported the defunct GoFundMe plea as follows:
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. 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.
The GoFundMe fundraiser, still on the Internet Archive, detailed the surrogacy. “Brandon (my fiancé) and I are looking to expand our family by using a gestational surrogate,” the appeal says:
In gestational surrogacy, the child is not biologically related to the surrogate mother. Instead, an embryo is created via in vitro fertilization (IVF) using an anonymous donor egg. The embryo is then transferred to the gestational surrogate who carries the baby as if it were any other pregnancy. Once the baby is born, the intended parents (Brandon and I) would have full legal custody.
Mitchell’s LinkedIn post is also at the Internet Archive. “Since today is my birthday, please consider supporting Logan and I on our journey to fatherhood,” he wrote:
We started the process in 2019 and are on the waitlist for a surrogacy match. Any help is much appreciated!
“In November of 2023, Riley updated the GoFundMe [plea] with the news that they had successfully found a surrogate,” Reduxx reported:
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.
But that wasn’t the only news that November.
“We are excited to announce that we finally have a surrogate!” the “couple” gushed:
Since our last post, we successfully created four embryos through an egg donor program in 2020. After three long years of searching, a family friend (Shayna Martinovich) reached out in early 2023 to see if we were still looking. After multiple conversations and a great connection with her family, we decided to proceed….
We are planning on throwing a fundraiser to help with the substantial costs in 2024 and will provide more information closer to the time. Thank you to everyone who already donated to our surrogacy fund, your contributions are greatly appreciated. We have incredible friends and family!
Surrogates Can Pass Kids to Molesters
Frighteningly, Reduxx reported, Pennsylvania doesn’t stop child molesters and other sex offenders from taking custody of kids from surrogates.
The website explained:
The state does not automatically forbid individuals convicted of sex crimes from having children, gaining custody, or exercising parental rights.
Its adoption law forbids sex offenders from “adopting or fostering children,” the website reported, but “gestational surrogacy circumvents any such laws through pre-birth parentage orders.”
