“I Cannot Wait to Build that One Day”: Lesbian and Bisexual College-Age Women’s Views on Marriage and Family

After the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality in 2015, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community has gained visibility. One cohort that is affected by this decision is lesbian and bisexual college-age women. The present study, through six face-to-face semi-structured interviews with self-identifying lesbian and bisexual college-age women, sought to understand how these women view marriage and family. Three themes emerged are: (a) Heteronormative socialization, (b) Personal endorsement of marriage, and (c) LGBT Parenting. The results of this study suggest that college-age women still carry the effects of growing up and entering adulthood in a largely heteronormative society, endorse marriage as an institution, and find profound personal meaning in the prospect of forming a family. Even in the face of protracted legal battles that are eventually won, the humanity of individual and personal motivation remains the most salient factor in forming bonds and building families.

LGBT Parenting and Family Formation

Over the past three decades, rapidly growing numbers of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people have become parents. LGBT people may become parents via giving birth or by adopting or fostering children. Some LGBT people may use Assisted Reproductive Technologies as part of their journey to parenthood. Other LGBT people may become parents as part of a blended or stepfamily. Overall, research comparing LGBT-headed families with heterosexual and/or cisgender-headed families demonstrates broadly similar outcomes for children. A key point of difference pertains to experiences of discrimination, which can occur when LGBT parents (and their children) access reproductive services, when engaging with their families of origin, in schools, and in terms of broader societal attitudes. Other points of difference pertain to the division of household labor, views on parenting, and beliefs about the needs of children. In many respects, the research evidence suggests that, across these three areas, LGBT parents engage in practices that positively benefit their children.

Transparenthood

Despite the growing recognition of transgender rights in both law and culture, there is one area of law that has lagged behind: family law’s treatment of transgender parents. We perform an investigation of the way that transgender parents are treated in case law and discover striking results regarding the outcomes for transgender parents within the family court system. Despite significant gains for transgender plaintiffs in employment and other areas of law, the evidence reveals an array of ways in which the family court system has systematically alienated the rights and interests of transgender parents. In many cases involving custody or visitation, we find that the transgender parent loses their bid, sometimes even losing their right to be recognized as a parent. This absence of equal treatment is striking and deserving of analysis, particularly given the law’s shift toward a standard that is supposed to minimize the risk of bias in LGBT parenting cases. In a striking number of cases, however, we found evidence of persistent bias regarding the gender identity and expression of the transgender parent—which we refer to as transition, contagion, and volition related concerns—that underscores the courts’ analysis. Normatively, this Article calls for a deeper interrogation of the ways in which family equality can be expanded—and even reoriented—to better protect the interests of transgender parents within the family law system. As a solution, we propose a way to balance courts’ broad discretion with the disproportionate risk that bias will infect the decisionmaking, resulting in irreparable harm to both the child and the parent.

Contemporary sociology and the challenge of LGBT perspective

This paper analyzes certain theoretical and methodological problems in the research of (homo) sexuality. It also provides an overview of some of the conclusions about LGBT parenting. There are both theoretical and practical reasons behind making connections between the topics of parenting and problems of a different sexual orientation. On the one hand, there is a need to expand the knowledge of the LGBT population and same-sex families in domestic sociology (considering that these issues are present for more than a decade in our society), while on the other hand, LGBT parenting problem analytically refers to the study of homosexuality because these two issues are inseparable in the public discourse. In general, the aim of this paper is to introduce LGBT perspectives in sociology and sociology of the family by pointing out the epistemological importance of studying non-heterosexual orientation and alternative family forms of LGBT. The first part includes the analysis of certain theoretical and methodological problems in the study of the LGBT population, and the second part gives an overview of contemporary research on same-sex families.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Families and Parenting

According to U.S. census data, an estimated 270,313 American children were living in households headed by same-sex couples in 2005, and nearly twice that number had a single lesbian or gay parent. Since the 1990s, a quiet revolution has been blooming in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. More and more lesbians and gay men from all walks of life are becoming parents. LGBT people become parents for some of the same reasons that heterosexual people do. Some pursue parenting as single people and others seek to create a family as a couple; still other LGBT people became parents in a heterosexual relationship. Although there are many common themes between LGBT parenting and heterosexual parenting, there are also some unique features. Unlike their heterosexual counterparts, who couple, get pregnant, and give birth, most LGBT individuals and couples who wish to parent must consider many other variables in deciding whether to become parents because the birth option is not the only option.