Qualitative exploration of lesbian parents’ experiences of accessing healthcare for their adopted children in England

ObjectiveTo explore the experiences of lesbian parents accessing healthcare for their adopted children in England.DesignA qualitative inductive design, using narrative inquiry with a critical incident recall interview approach. Interviews were analysed using merged tools of critical event analysis and broadening, burrowing, storying and restorying.SettingParticipants were recruited from a British lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender fostering and adoption charity.ParticipantsSix lesbian adoptive parents with experience of accessing healthcare for their adopted children in England.ResultsFollowing data analysis, five themes were identified: navigating heteronormativity, navigating healthcare settings and professionals and having an ‘adopted’ status, intersectional identity of lesbian-parented adoptive families accessing healthcare, reflective imagery of lesbian parents and adoptive families and professional expectations. Self-imposed strategies instigated by the parents to strengthen and protect their familial identities were also discovered.ConclusionsThe needs and challenges of lesbian adoptive families may be different to those of heterosexual and biological families when accessing healthcare. There was an undercurrent of discriminatory practice, shown by various healthcare professionals, and a lack of understanding of the adoption process, knowledge surrounding the child’s history and legal stance with regards to parental responsibility. Further training is needed for healthcare professionals.

Building Inclusive Communities in Youth Sport for Lesbian-Parented Families

This interpretative study examines the complexities of lesbian parents’ experiences in organized youth sport programs. Specifically, it seeks to understand youth sport as a potential site for social change that facilitates a sense of inclusive community for diverse family structures. Using thematic analysis, the author examines perspectives of nine participants from Australia, Canada, and the United States. Emphasis is placed on how the lesbian parents (a) negotiate heightened visibility, sexual stigma, and parental judgment; (b) foster social relationships through participation, volunteerism, and positive role models; and (c) create shared understanding toward building an inclusive sport culture. The findings call attention to the importance of intentional and unintentional acts (by families as well as sport organizations) that create a sense of community and an inclusive organizational culture. The connection of lesbian parents’ experiences to broader concepts, such as sexual stigma and transformative services, are also examined within the context of youth sport.

Such Books Should be Burned! Same-Sex Parenting and the Stretchable Definition of the Family in Larysa Denysenko’s and Mariia Foya’s Maya and Her Mums

As there is a myriad of Anglophone picturebooks featuring same-sex parents, some Western readers familiar with them would probably see little that is ground-breaking in the visual and verbal narrative of Larysa Denysenko’s and Mariia Foya’s Maya and Her Mums (2017). The picturebook’s first-person narrator and protagonist is a ten-year-old girl who describes her 16 classmates and their families; it includes no violence, no nudity, and no sexual references. Despite the title suggesting the story to be about the eponymous heroine and her family, Maya briefly introduces readers to her two mothers in one of the last doublespreads. When Maya and Her Mums was included in the programme of Ukraine’s most important book fair, the Lviv Book Forum, it became a political tool in the confrontation between homophobic Ukrainian nationalists and progressive intellectuals. In this essay, I want to examine the depiction of same-sex parenting in Maya and Her Mums and argue that it implies gradual widening of tolerance, with households headed by lesbian parents being the most controversial. Thus, the picturebook suggests that the definition of the family is stretchable, even in a conservative socio-political climate. By familiarising readers with Denysenko’s and Foya’s picturebook, I want to show what makes it different from equivalent Anglophone picturebooks and argue that the Ukrainian book market is slowly becoming more inclusive and diverse. Hence, despite the conservative backlash, the need for for same-sex parents and their children to be represented in children’s literature can no longer be ignored.