Grammy Award-winning country music songwriter Shane McAnally is facing renewed and intensifying criticism after a video emerged showing him and his husband Michael Baum asking their older surrogate children which of the two men is “hornier” — the latest in a string of controversies surrounding the couple’s approach to parenting content on social media.
The clip follows weeks of fierce public debate sparked by a separate video in which McAnally filmed his five-month-old son, Texson Ray McAnally Baum, crying and repeatedly saying “mama” after being asked whether he wanted “dada or pop.” Baum was heard responding “no, there is no mama” as both men laughed. McAnally posted the video with the caption “baby has 2 dads… chose neither,” and the footage spread rapidly across social media platforms, accumulating hundreds of thousands of views and drawing sharp condemnation from conservative commentators and parenting advocates alike.
McAnally told the Daily Mail he was “shocked” by the reaction, insisting the clip was intended to be “self-deprecating” and that he and Baum had found it funny that their baby reached for “mama” rather than either of his fathers. “He’s five months old; he obviously doesn’t understand English,” he said.
The explanation did little to quiet the outrage. Conservative advocacy group Concerned Women for America noted it was not the first time McAnally had “made a joke out of his son’s instinctive desire for his mother,” pointing to a December 2025 Instagram post in which he described the then six-week-old Texson as a “6-week-old homophobic baby” — a video viewed more than 36 million times, which showed the infant frowning when told he had two dads.
Daily Wire podcaster Michael Knowles labelled the mama video “the most horrifying video I’ve ever seen,” while Catholic commentator Peachy Keenan asserted those involved were “criminally liable in child emotional abuse.”
The now-viral “hornier” video involving the couple’s older children — twins Dylan and Dash, who are 12 — has added a new dimension to the controversy, with critics arguing the question was wholly inappropriate to direct at minors regardless of context. The clip has prompted widespread condemnation online, with many calling it exploitative and deeply inappropriate.
McAnally shares three children with husband Michael Baum, all born via surrogate. He has over two decades of experience in country music and has written and produced songs for artists including Sam Hunt, Miranda Lambert and Kacey Musgraves, earning four Grammy Awards. The couple married in 2012.
McAnally has not issued a public response to the latest video at the time of publication.
