Lesbian, mother, foreigner and educator: Challenges of a multifaceted identity in Japan

Cynthia Smith writes of her experiences as a lesbian educator, wife, and mother and the transition from a single identity of foreigner in Japan to the multiple identities that she embodies today.

A Lesbian Parent’s Perspective on LGBTQ Families of Choice

This chapter describes the intersection of the author’s personal experience as a lesbian mother with her work as an activist and lawyer as well as the challenges involving the end of her relationship with her daughter’s other mother, who was not a legal parent. In 1978, she helped organize the first Lesbian Mothers’ Day Celebration on the steps of the State House in Boston; in 1984, she gave birth to her daughter; in 1993, Adoption of Tammy (the first appellate brief she ever wrote) was decided—giving same-sex couples the right to adopt in Massachusetts; and in 2002, she successfully petitioned the Court to allow a three-parent adoption, creating for the first time a legally recognized relationship between her former partner and their daughter. The chapter concludes with observations—based on personal and professional experience—about the work that remains to be done in order to protect LGBTQ families.