Family Equality (2019) LGBTQ Family Building Survey. https://www.familyequality.org/fbs (December 5 2022) We first hear of out LGBTQ parents around the time of World War II, mostly in the context of cases that denied them child custody after divorce from different-sex, cisgender spouses. Starting in the 1970s, however, a few state courts upheld custody rights for transgender, gay, and lesbian parents, though some still required that they not live with a partner or engage in “homosexual activities.” Authors Lotte Jeffs and Stu Oakley spoke to dozens of experts and queer families, and this hugely-needed book is the product of those conversations and their own experiences of becoming parents through IUI and adoption respectively.

The Queer Parent by Lotte Jeffs, Stuart Oakley | Waterstones

In June 2018, I took the plunge to become a doula. My main motivation behind becoming a doula was helping a loved one through severe postnatal depression. Before I’d even finished my first day of training, I knew I wanted to work specifically with queer families and Nanny Kimbo was born. Important observations from research on twins separated at birth and large adoption studies, is that parents tend to have little to no environmental effects on their children's behavioural traits, which are instead correlated with genes shared between parent and child and the non-shared environment (environment which is unique to the child, such as random developmental noise and events, as opposed to rearing). [77] The 2016 Bailey et al. review concludes that there "is good evidence for both genetic and nonsocial environmental influences on sexual orientation" including prenatal developmental events, but that there is better evidence for biological mechanisms relating to male sexual orientation, which appears unresponsive to socialization, saying "we would be surprised if differences in social environment contributed to differences in male sexual orientation at all." [77] :87 In contrast, they say that female sexual orientation may be somewhat responsive to social environment, saying "it would also be less surprising to us to discover that social environment affects female sexual orientation and related behavior, that possibility must be scientifically supported rather than assumed." [77] :87 In more recent studies, [53] many of these issues have been resolved due to factors such as the changing social climate for LGBT people.Crowl, Alicia; Ahn, Soyeon; Baker, Jean (12 August 2008). "A Meta-Analysis of Developmental Outcomes for Children of Same-Sex and Heterosexual Parents". Journal of GLBT Family Studies. 4 (3): 385–407. doi: 10.1080/15504280802177615. S2CID 24069055. In 1999, Matt Rice became possibly the first transgender man to give birth in the U.S., although it is hard to tell how the few people in the 19th century who gave birth but lived as men would have identified. (They are our queer parental forebears, regardless.) The same year, a British gay couple had children through surrogacy in California, where a court for the first time allowed two gay dads to be on their children’s birth certificate. Canadian Psychological Association" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2018 . Retrieved 26 July 2015.

The Queer Parent: a groundbreaking book to help LGBTQ+ families

The overall methodological sophistication and quality of studies in this domain have increased over the years, as would be expected for any new area of empirical inquiry. More recent research has reported data from probability and community-based convenience samples, has used more rigorous assessment techniques, and has been published in highly respected and widely cited developmental psychology journals, including Child Development and Developmental Psychology. Data are increasingly available from prospective studies. In addition, whereas early study samples consisted mainly of children originally born into heterosexual relationships that subsequently dissolved when one parent came out as gay or lesbian, recent samples are more likely to include children conceived within a same-sex relationship or adopted in infancy by a same-sex couple. Thus, they are less likely to confound the effects of having a sexual minority parent with the consequences of divorce. [7] Kerppola, Jenni; Halme, Nina; Maija-Pietilä, Anna (September 2, 2019). "Empowering LGBTQ parents: How to improve maternity services and child healthcare settings for this community – 'She told us that we are good as a family' ". Nordic Journal of Nursing Research. 40 (1): 41–51. doi: 10.1177/2057158519865844. S2CID 203055303.Children may struggle with negative attitudes about their parents from the harassment they may encounter by living in society. [81] There are many risks and challenges that can occur for children of LGBT families and their parents in North America, including those in the individual domain, family domain, and community/school domain. [82] Hegemonic social norms can lead some children to struggle in all or several domains. [83] Social interactions at school, extracurricular activities, and religious organizations can promote negative attitudes towards their parents and themselves based on gender and sexuality. [83] Bias, stereotypes, micro-aggressions, harm, and violence that both students and parents can often encounter are a result of identifying outside of social normative, cis-gender, heterosexual society or having their identity used as a weapon against them. [84] [85] Children and young adults with LGBTQ parents are uniquely defined by the fact that they typically identify as heterosexual, but as a function of their membership in an LGBTQ-parent family, they are exposed to minority stress and experience the effects of adulthood. Thus, a central question in this study is, How do young adults with LGBTQ parents explain their sense of connection to or disconnection from the LGBTQ community, both as children (while growing up with LGBTQ parents) and as young adults? [49] New Family Structures Study: Published by Mark Regnerus in 2012, this study was widely discredited by researchers, and which claimed to show that children of gay and lesbian parents were adversely affected by their upbringing by parents in same-sex relationships. [104] verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{