Main description:

LGBT-Parent Families is the first handbook to provide a comprehensive examination of this underserved area. Reflecting the nature of this issue, the volume is notably interdisciplinary, with contributions from scholars in psychology, sociology, human development, family studies, gender studies, sexuality studies, legal studies, social work, and anthropology. Additionally, scholarship from regions beyond the U.S. including England, Australia, Canada, and South Africa is presented. In addition to gender and sexuality, all contributors address issues of social class, race, and ethnicity in their chapters.

Feature:

First work to offer a comprehensive examination of the field of LGBT-parent families

Provides an interdisciplinary perspective

Highlights methodological issues

Proposes future research directions

Includes a section on applied issues

Back cover:

“This first-rate handbook provides a comprehensive, astute, and accessible view of LGBT-parent families. With contributions from an interdisciplinary and international group of leading scholars, this volume covers every contemporary topic concerning LGBT families, including transgender parenting and LGBTQ youth with LGBTQ parents. Co-editors Drs. Goldberg and Allen have done an outstanding job in assembling experts to present overviews of the research and suggest applications for clinical work, policy, and advocacy. I highly recommend that this book be included in college and post-graduate social science courses on family life. This manual is essential reading for all clinicians.”  - Nanette Gartrell, MD, Williams Institute Visiting Distinguished Scholar, UCLA School of Law, Principal Investigator, U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study

“The appearance of a handbook on LGBT-parent families signals and advances the mainstreaming of a category of family that just a short time ago was utterly marginal, subversive, even illegal.”—from the Foreword by Judith Stacey, Ph.D.

Paralleling their gains in legal rights and social acceptance is a rapidly growing knowledge base concerning sexually diverse families. Emphasizing what we know and what we still need to know about this maturing field, LGBT-Parent Families covers both major and less-studied areas of research, exploring clinical, methodological, policy, and advocacy issues alongside the contexts in which parents practice their craft and children experience their world. Inclusiveness beyond sexuality and gender is a crucial dimension of this volume: issues of race/ethnicity, social class, and geographic diversity are discussed by most of the contributors, including a chapter devoted to non-Western perspectives. Diverse, too, are the disciplines represented in the book, from psychology and psychiatry to human development and legal studies. Among the topics covered:

• Lesbian and gay adoptive parents
• A call for research on bisexual parenting
• Transgender-parent families
• LGBTQ youth with LGBTQ parents
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender grandparents
• Clinical work with LGBTQ parents and prospective parents
• Qualitative research on LGBT-parent families
• Use of representative datasets to study LGBT-parent families
• Use of multilevel modeling to study LGBT-parent families

Geared toward researchers in family relations, family sociology, and public health as well as to policymakers and clinicians, LGBT-Parent Families breaks progressive new ground with an eye toward an egalitarian future.

Contents:

Foreword: LGBT-Parent Families: Innovations in Research and Implications for Practice.-I.Research: Overview Chapters.-Lesbian and Gay Parenting Post-Heterosexual Divorce and Separation.-Lesbian-Mother Families Formed Through Donor Insemination.-Lesbian and Gay Adoptive Parents and their Children.-II. Research: Understudied Topics and Groups.-How Lesbians and Gay Men Decide to Become Parents or Remain Childfree.-Gay Men and Surrogacy.-Where is the “B” in LGBT Parenting?: A Call for Research on Bisexual Parenting.-Transgender-Parent Families.-“These are Our Children”: Polyamorous Parenting.-Race and Ethnicity in the Lives of Sexual Minority Parents and Their Children.-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Parents and the Question of Gender.-The “Second Generation”: LGBTQ Youth with LGBTQ Parents.-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Grandparents.-Place Matters: LGB Families in Community Context.-LGBT Parents and Their Children: Non-Western Research and Perspectives.-LGBT Parents and the Workplace.-III. Applications: Clinical Work, Policy, and Advocacy.-Clinical Work with LGBTQ Parents and Prospective Parents.-Clinical Work with Children and Adolescents Growing up with Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Parents.-Schools and LGBT-Parent Families: Creating Change Through Programming and Advocacy.-The Law Governing LGBT-Parent Families.-IV. Methodology: Research Strategies.- Multilevel Modeling Approaches to the Study of LGBT Parent-Families: Methods for Dyadic Data Analysis.-Qualitative Research on LGBT-Parent Families.-The Use of Representative Datasets to Study LGBT-Parent Families: Challenges, Advantages, and Opportunities.-V.  Conclusion: Reflections on the Volume and Visions for the Future