A compelling examination of the social and legal experiences of lesbian, bisexual, and queer stepparent families Lesbian, bisexual, and queer families formed after the dissolution of a marriage face a range of obstacles. In Queer Stepfamilies, Katie L. Acosta offers a wealth of insight into their complex experiences as they negotiate parenting among multiple parents and family-building in a world not designed to meet their needs. Drawing on in-depth interviews, Acosta follows the journeys of more than forty families as they navigate a legal and social landscape that fails to recognize their existence. Acosta contextualizes the legal realities of LGBTQ stepparent families and considers the actions these parents take to protect their families in the absence of comprehensive policies or laws geared to meet their needs. Queer Stepfamilies reveals the obstacles these families face in family courts during divorce proceedings and custody cases, and highlights their distrust of courts when it comes to acting in their children’s best interests, especially in the event of an origin parent’s death. As LGBTQ families continue to make social and legal strides in acceptance and recognition, this important book shows how queer stepparents find ways to make their unconventional families work, despite the many social and legal obstacles they encounter. Acosta provides a fresh perspective, broadening our understanding about families in the twenty-first century.

Lesbian Step Families: An Ethnography of Love explores five lesbian step families’definitions of the step parent role and how they accomplish parenting tasks, cope with homophobia, and define and interpret their experiences. An intensive feminist qualitative study, the book offers guidelines for counselors and lesbian step families for creating healthy, functioning family structures and environments. It is the first book to concentrate exclusively on lesbian step families rather than on lesbian mothering in general.In Lesbian Step Families: An Ethnography of Love, you’ll explore in detail the different kinds of step relationships that are developed and what factors may lead to the different types of step mothering in lesbian step families. The book helps you understand these relationships and parent roles through in-depth discussions of: how a step mother and legal mother who live together negotiate and organize parenting and homemaking tasks how members of lesbian step families define and create the step mother role strategies family members use to define and cope with oppression how sexism is transmitted within the family and how mothering may limit and/or contribute to female liberation the opinions and viewpoints of the children of these families The findings in Lesbian Step Families: An Ethnography of Love challenge traditional views of mothering and fathering as gender and biologically based activities; they indicate that lesbian step families model gender flexibility and that the mothers and step mothers share parenting--both traditional mothering and fathering--tasks. This allows the biological mother some freedom from motherhood as well as support in it. With insight such as this, you will be prepared to help a client, a loved one, or yourself develop and maintain healthy family relationships.

This volume focuses on a wide range of behaviors and outcomes in stepfamily relationships, both positive and negative. The authors use the normative-adaptive perspective to seek out and study adaptive, well-functioning stepfamilies and find how they differ from those who struggle to cope. It will be a welcome text and reference for all those who study and work with stepfamilies and families in general.

PAPERBACK ORIGINAL A stunning new photobook featuring more than fifty portraits of children brought up by gay parents in America, sixth in a groundbreaking series that looks at LGBTQ communities around the world Judges, academics, and activists keep wondering how children are impacted by having gay parents. Maybe it’s time to ask the kids. For the past four years, award-winning photographer Gabriela Herman, whose mother came out when Herman was in high school and was married in one of Massachusetts’ first legal same-sex unions, has been photographing and interviewing children and young adults with one or more parent who identify as lesbian, gay, trans, or queer. Building on images featured in a major article for the New York Times Sunday Review and The Guardian and working with the Colage organization, the only national organization focusing on children with LGBTQ parents, The Kids brings a vibrant energy and sensitivity to a wide range of experiences. Some of the children Herman photographed were adopted, some conceived by artificial insemination. Many are children of divorce. Some were raised in urban areas, other in the rural Midwest and all over the map. These parents and children juggled silence and solitude with a need to defend their families on the playground, at church, and at holiday gatherings. This is their story. The Kids was designed by Emerson, Wajdowicz Studios (EWS).

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.

Combining theoretical, empirical, and clinical knowledge, Stepfamilies: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective contains recent research and information that will help mental health practitioners, family therapists, psychologists, and counselors understand the characteristics, dynamics, needs, and issues of nonclinical stepfamilies. Based on direct experiences with diverse types of stepfamilies, this book gives you new guidelines and strategies that will enable you to offer more successful sessions to your clients and improve your effectiveness as a practitioner. Developed to give you a more realistic understanding of stepfamilies, this text helps you avoid the stereotypes and false perceptions that often surround stepfamilies. Offering methods and strategies aimed at making your clients feel comfortable about themselves and their situations, Stepfamilies: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective examines several aspects of these families that you need to know in order to improve your effectiveness with them, including: the definition and description of stepfamilies and recognizing historical and social changes in the stepfamily structure critical reviews on the present knowledge of stepfamilies describing the complexity of family structure, the ambiguity of boundaries and roles, and the struggle with the diverse phases of the life cycle discussing key issues for stepfamilies, such as past orientation and acceptance/rejection of differences from non-stepfamilies and focal subsystems the profile, characteristics, and case studies of an innovative typology of stepfamilies that includes integrated families, invented families, and imported families aspects of ethnically and culturally different stepfamilies, including American stepfamilies, Israeli stepfamilies, and immigrant stepfamilies from the former Soviet Union social perceptions and attitudes of stepfamilies in schools, social services, community organizations, the media, and with the law Offering case studies and data on a variety of families and situations, Stepfamilies: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective will show you that all stepfamilies are not the same and cannot be helped by just one practice method. Complete with principles and instruments to assess patients and the success of sessions, Stepfamilies: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective works to promote an understanding of stepfamilies that will result in effective and positive therapy for your clients.

"Brave New Stepfamilies is an excellent treatise on today′s families....This volume is a welcome addition to the field of family studies, and I highly recommend it." —Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Columbia University "A thorough, balanced tour de force!" —Frances Goldscheider, University of Maryland Brave New Stepfamilies maps the changing landscape of American stepfamilies, taking readers on a tour through the diverse assortment of traditional and not-so-traditional stepfamily forms that have emerged in recent years. Author Susan D. Stewart presents the latest scholarly research on stepfamilies in an accessible way, weaving together predominant theoretical perspectives, findings from research and national surveys, and interviews with stepfamily members. Key Features: Investigates the social and demographic trends that have irrevocably altered stepfamily life: While most books on stepfamilies focus on divorce and remarriage, this book examines recent trends, such as couples having children and living together outside of marriage, parents sharing custody of children, gay marriage, the aging population, and increasing racial and ethnic diversity, that provide multiple pathways to stepfamily formation. Explores a wide range of living arrangements, caregiving, and intimacy scenarios: This book captures the lived experience of contemporary Americans. Extending across various household settings, this book pays special attention to multihousehold stepfamilies, stepparent adoption, stepfamilies with adult stepchildren, and African American stepfamilies. Provides practical information on the prevalence of stepfamilies in society: Counting the number of stepfamilies in society is difficult; published estimates are sometimes unreliable. This book describes the latest data sources, trends in data collection, and data limitations. In addition, useful information on the legal and practical realities of living as a stepfamily is provided. Intended Audience: This is an excellent text for a variety of advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on family, such as Divorce and Remarriage, Stepfamilies, Family Diversity, Gay and Lesbian Families, Aging and the Family, African American Families, and Family Policy, in departments of sociology, human development & family studies, psychology, African American or ethnic studies, and public policy.