Lesbians And Lesbian Families

Examines the special bonds and stresses, common to lesbian families and provides a five-stage working model for the development of lesbian couple relationships. It provides guidance for friends as well as members of lesbian families and is useful for therapists who wish to design more effective and informed therapies.

Find sources of support for raising a nontraditional family in a straight world! The experience of parenting is commonly overlooked in psychological theory, and lesbians and gay men are not typically considered as parents or parents to be. Gay and Lesbian Parenting examines the psychological issues related to developing family and becoming parents for gay men and lesbians. Instead of pathologizing gay and lesbian families, it explores the emotional growth and development issues inherent in child-rearing. Traditionally, coming out as gay or lesbian meant abandoning any hope of becoming a parent or keeping your children if you already had them. But with the “gayby boom” in full swing, more and more gay and lesbian couples are having new babies, adopting children, and continuing to raise the offspring of previous heterosexual relationships. Although gay and lesbian parents still face unique challenges in building and rearing a family, as well as the usual problems heterosexual couples encounter, Gay and Lesbian Parenting unflinchingly examines these concerns and offers positive suggestions and ideas for dealing with the difficulties. This life-affirming book takes a look at the practical and emotional realities of raising children in nontraditional family structures, including: issues of kinship, shared motherhood, and possessiveness in lesbian couples legal issues entailed by the lack of marriage and legal kinship parenthood as a powerful force for personal growth and development fatherhood as a process of creating connectedness in the family, community, and place of worship original empirical research on the mental health of lesbians’children the history of the gay and lesbian movement as it relates to child-rearing Gay and Lesbian Parenting affirms the power of gay and lesbian couples to raise healthy, happy children and to change and grow through their experience of parenting. This book is also essential for mental health professionals from psychiatric nurses to psychiatrists who are working with the gay and lesbian community.

In America today, more than 10 million children have gay or lesbian parents. Reinventing the Family is the first in-depth look at the joys, challenges, and issues facing these nontraditional families. It offers invaluable insight to gay and lesbian people who are choosing children, fighting for custody, and challenging our view of "family values".

This cutting-edge collection of articles examines the sociocultural context of the lives of lesbians and lesbian families and reveals how new insights about lesbian identities, experiences, and relationships can be integrated into clinical theory and practice. A family therapist, Joan Laird presents several clinical approaches to working with lesbians as individuals and in couple and parenting relationships and to viewing sexual orientation in its full complexity of race, class, gender, and cultural identity. Rich with clinical case studies and research on the everyday lives of lesbian families, this book includes chapters on the strategic language of self-disclosure, the family lives of lesbian mothers, and lesbian mothers who "come out" to their adolescent children.

This handsome volume combines interviews and photographs to document the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered parents and their children. It allows all of the family members to speak candidly about their lives, their relationships, and the ways in which they have dealt with the pressures of homophobia. Included in the book are people from a diverse array of racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds, representing a wide range of family structures. Together, they provide clear evidence that family roles and responsibilities need not be based on gender, and that children thrive in an atmosphere in which understanding, respect, and love transcend the prejudices of the day.

Living “Difference”: Lesbian Perspectives on Work and Family Life examines the roles of lesbians in the home, in the workplace, and as parents. Discussing the advantages of female same-sex relationships, this book suggests that these partnerships are able to facilitate more egalitarian ideals for women than heterosexual relationships. This book will help academics, counselors, and women in same-sex relationships understand the positive aspects of lesbian parenting and the advantages lesbians experience in these households. Without focusing on lesbians as victims or neglecting their differences from other women, Living “Difference” will help you realize that ‘living different’can be an empowering experience. Living “Difference” brings together current theoretical and empirical research on lesbian experiences of work and family life and explores the myths and realities of these women. From this book, you will learn about a recent study in Eastern and Western Europe that revealed several advantages for children with lesbian parents, such as an awareness of prejudice against homosexuality and increased moral development. Providing you with case studies of lesbian parents and their children, Living “Difference” offers you insight into the positive and controversial aspects of this family arrangement, including: British tabloid articles that denounce lesbian parenting and discussions of the actual reason for hostility against this type of family the fears, joys, and legal problems that lesbian couples in Europe face when raising children studies that indicate co-mothers take a more active role in the life of their children than do fathers how gender usually determines the division of housework and the differences between lesbian and heterosexual households how society, faculty, and students discriminate against lesbian teachers and how these teachers try to keep their private lives secret for fear of losing their jobs Offering theories that heterosexual households often confine women to gendered roles, this book will help you understand the positive aspects of ‘living different’despite societal prejudices. Focusing on the impact gender and sexuality have on societal roles, Living “Difference” seeks to change the practice of treating lesbianism as the ‘other’facet of feminism and will prove to you the positive differences of lesbian families.

Same-sex marriage is an often-debated topic these days. When children are added to the picture, the issue can become even more controversial. Does growing up in families with gay or lesbian parents harm children? Do they struggle with more issues as adults than those who were raised in more traditional families? These are some of the questions this book addresses. The families in this book have thought about issues like these. Except for those families who already had children when they came out as being homosexual, they have had to go through artificial insemination or adoption in order to have children. These families are intentional and they think a lot about how to give their children the best possible lives. What are the good things about growing up in a family with same-sex parents? What are the difficulties? The families in this book try to answer just those questions.

An inside look at the unique challenges of the lesbian experience Lesbian Families’ Challenges and Means of Resiliency: Implications for Feminist Family Therapy is a unique collection of interdisciplinary feminist examinations of the resiliency of lesbian couples and families. Leading feminist researchers and clinicians discuss parenting within lesbian families, with a focus on personal resiliency. These thought-provoking and insightful articles address the challenges of having and raising children in a society that struggles to accept alternative family structures. Lesbian Families’ Challenges and Means of Resiliency examines a wide range of issues facing lesbian couples, with a special focus on parenting and couple violence. The book’s contributors examine the unique challenges of lesbian and gay parenting; adversities facing lesbian parents and the coping methods they employ; violence among lesbian couples and the lesbian community’s response to domestic violence; and the application of feminist theory to validate, strengthen, and promote resiliency in lesbian couples. The book also includes interviews with single or partnered lesbians who had children through adoption, artificial insemination, or a previous relationship. Topics examined in Lesbian Families’ Challenges and Means of Resiliency include: parenting artificial insemination lesbian family therapy family law couple violence lesbian community feminist research feminist couple therapy and much more Lesbian Families’ Challenges and Means of Resiliency is a vital professional aid for psychotherapists, family therapists, psychologists, social workers, and counselors. It’s an equally valuable resource for academics working in family studies, women’s studies, queer studies, gender studies, and sociology.