This book studies the growing number of lesbian women embarking on parenthood after coming out. Theoretical debates about lesbian motherhood often consider its assimilative or transgressive dimensions. This book offers a different approach, contextualising lesbian motherhood in relation to sexual citizenship and hegemonic discourses of kinship

A unique practical application of poststructuralist theory to lesbian mothers’ narratives, Lesbian Motherhood: Stories of Becoming analyzes the personal stories of 40 lesbian mothers to discover the complex ways their sense of self is constructed in the current legal, political, and social climate. These intimate narratives are examined by using Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s conceptual framework to understand subjectivities by focusing on the many flexible lines of movement that constitute subjectivities, or ‘becomings.’ This unique source reveals deep insight into a lesbian's construction of self through her stories about her own sexuality, parenting, and other experiences in becoming a mother. Lesbian Motherhood: Stories of Becoming challenges the assimilation/resistance perspective typically expressed by scholars of lesbian motherhood. Qualitative interviews reveal startling new perspectives to lesbian mother subjectivities viewed within the context of the legal, political, and social areas that seek to define and regulate contemporary family life. This powerful source explores in detail the discursive strategies through which lesbian subjectivities are created and recreated. Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of ‘becoming’ provides a valuable framework for analyzing the discursive strategies employed by those participating in this study. Lesbian Motherhood: Stories of Becoming offers insightful, powerful information that is indispensable to GLBT scholars, and social theorists.

Over the past 30 years, research on gay and lesbian parents has produced findings that challenge deeply rooted beliefs in child psychology about the processes through which parents influence the development of their children. Gay and Lesbian Parenting: New Directions builds on this important research with a detailed multidisciplinary examination of established knowledge and emerging information. In addition to evaluating already substantiated findings, this innovative collection marks a turning point in the field by showcasing a new wave of research that examines the dynamics of same-sex parenting and addresses questions about newly emerging concerns such as the consequences of different routes to same-sex parenthood and the effects of social perceptions on gay and lesbian family life.

A new, multidisciplinary look at GLBT parenting Over the past 30 years, research on gay and lesbian parents has produced findings that challenge deeply rooted beliefs in child psychology about the processes through which parents influence the development of their children. Gay and Lesbian Parenting: New Directions builds on this important research with a detailed multidisciplinary examination of established knowledge and emerging information. In addition to evaluating already substantiated findings, this innovative collection marks a turning point in the field by showcasing a new wave of research that examines the dynamics of same-sex parenting and addresses questions about newly emerging concerns such as the consequences of different routes to same-sex parenthood and the effects of social perceptions on gay and lesbian family life. Gay and Lesbian Parenting: New Directions presents an overview of significant developments and suggests future directions for the field. Arranged in four sections, this unique text offers cutting-edge information gathered from both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Section one considers gay and lesbian family formation and the may routes through which lesbians and gay men have become parents. Section two reviews family relationships from parents', and their children's, perspective. The contributions to the third section discuss how gay and lesbian families describe themselves to others. The final section examines the public perceptions held by heterosexuals about lesbian and gay parenting and looks toward possibilities for the future. Chapters in Gay and Lesbian Parenting: New Directions: look at established research and the perspective of gay and lesbian parents and their children on family life explore methodological advances in the research field define the demographics of gay and lesbian parenting and the comparisons of lesbians, gay men, heterosexual women, and heterosexual men without children consider the decisions involved in and the systemic process of donor insemination and surrogacy study gay and lesbian adoptive parents investigate representations of diversity in storybooks for children of gay and lesbian parents situate gay men’s journeys into fatherhood within the sociohistorical context of developments in the United States tell personal stories about the prospect of gay fatherhood present a consideration of the different identities that lesbian and heterosexual mothers construct critically consider the terminology used both within and outside lesbian-parented families to describe a wide variety of co-parenting relationships give an introduction to critical psychology and deconstruct the debate over the importance of paternal influence report findings from a large community survey in Australia on attitudes toward same-sex parenting and beliefs about developmental outcomes and much more! Accessible and detailed, with numerous case studies, bibliographies, tables, and figures, Gay and Lesbian Parenting: New Directions is an ideal resource for students and educators, researchers and professionals working in GLBT and Queer Studies, family therapists, counselors, psychotherapists, social workers, and psychiatrists.

The issue of gay and lesbian parenting has been the focus of much controversy in recent years. The views of politicians, the public, and the clergy have received much media attention, often overshadowing those of the parents themselves. Fiona Nelson attempts to bridge this gap with Lesbian Motherhood, the first study of its kind, which explores the many aspects and stages of lesbian motherhood. Nelson's study is based on over thirty interviews with lesbian mothers in Alberta. The women fall into two groups: those raising children who had been conceived in prior heterosexual relationships and those raising children who had been conceived within lesbian relationships. The two groups provide a valuable comparison because, although the effects of the social context can be quite similar for each, their experiences of mothering are often strikingly different. Nelson explores such topics as reproductive decision-making, interacting with other mothers, the effects of the social context in which lesbian mothering is occurring, step-parenting, domestic and parenting roles, and raising boys. The non-supportive social milieu in which they exist is one of the major factors distinguishing lesbian families from many other families. There is some discussion in the book of the political activism that has occurred in Canada around the legal status and equality of lesbian women and their families. There is also a Canadian resource directory for lesbian mothers and prospective mothers.