Shane Dawson and Ryland Adams' Surrogacy Sparks Backlash

YouTubers Shane Dawson and Ryland Adams have welcomed twin boys via a surrogate.

The couple, who got married in January after seven years of dating, announced their happy news on Instagram, revealing their sons were born on December 7. They named the boys Jet Parker Adams Yaw and Max Chandler Adams Yaw— Yaw is Dawson's legal surname—and shared a series of photos of them together at the hospital.

"There's no words to express how it feels to be the fathers of these two beautiful boys," they wrote on a shared Instagram post. "The best day of our entire lives and nothing else will ever compare. We probably won't be showing much of them in the future, but because many of you have been on the journey with us we felt it was right to show the destination. We are so unbelievably grateful."

"Thank you for the love and support during this entire process," they continued. "We can't wait for all the moments that are on the way. Cherishing every single one. - Shane and Ryland❤️."

Newsweek contacted the couple via Instagram for comment.

Considered to be among the original YouTubers, Adams and Dawson's fans rushed to congratulate them in the comments.

"I'm literally CRYING at that photo of Shane bonding with his child on his chest 😭 how precious is that?!" wrote one person.

"10 year old me feels so happy seeing Shane finally achieve his family dreams 🥺♥️"

While the comments section was also flooded with backlash, many people wrote kind and supportive messages.

"i laugh at the amount of people thinking that any of this isn't okay. it's their damn babies and their family, wtf do you matter? leave them alone," wrote one person.

And another added: "Omg so much hate in these comments. Knock it tf off you guys."

Some of the critics slammed Dawson's past controversies, and others were against commercial surrogacy.

"A just society would make this factory farming of babies illegal," wrote one person on X, formerly Twitter.

One Christian writer, Ericka Andersen, argued that commercial surrogacy "dehumanizes women."

"This is a business that profits off eggs and wombs poached from impoverished women in the U.S. and places like war-torn Ukraine," she wrote for Newsweek.

Another writer, who used surrogacy to have her own son, argued it was not "unnatural and selfish" to choose the surrogacy route.

"The greatest gesture of love lay in our compromise; if we were going to raise a kid together, it wouldn't be at the expense of my wellness or my wishes. If I had to choose between being sick and being childfree, I would always choose being childfree," Kristina Kasparian wrote for Newsweek. "So, we replaced me with two women: an anonymous egg donor and a non-anonymous surrogate. I won't be contributing my genes or my womb, but I promise to still offer my heart."

Other people argued Dawson should not have children because of past actions and comments he made, including doing blackface and joking that he had sexual relations with his cat, Cheeto.

"Shane Dawson has no business having kids with his comments," argued one person on X.

But some defended him, with one person writing: "Idk all I heard was a rumor that he f***** his cat and was a racist. But like idc about Shane Dawson but bro just had a kid and is getting harassed. Ppl need to leave him alone and let him enjoy being a new father Yk?"

He launched his ShaneDawsonTV YouTube channel in 2008 and is regarded as one of the first people to pioneer influencer content on the platform. He has more than 19 million subscribers and has apologized a number of times for his past controversies.

"All of my offensive jokes, over the top stories, and insensitive jokes are something that still haunt me and something I have to be faced with everyday on the internet. And it never gets easier," he tweeted in 2009.

In a 2021 apology, Dawson referred to his younger self in the YouTube videos and said he "hates that person so f****** much."

"This video is coming from a place of just wanting to own up to my s***, wanting to own up to everything I've done on the internet that has hurt people, that has added to a problem, that has not been handled well," he said. "I should have been punished for things."