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Little is known about openly gay men who elect to conceive and raise children jointly with a heterosexual woman outside of marriage. Drawing on in-depth interviews with nine Israeli gay fathers who are co-parenting with a heterosexual woman, this study examines the factors associated with their unique family choice and the characteristics these men sought in selecting the mother. The findings revealed three key motivations for establishing a hetero-gay family: belief in the essential mother, belief in biological parenting, and the belief that the child's best interests dictate having two parents of the opposite sex. These beliefs, along with seeking co-parents with maternal attributes, reflect traditional attitudes and a wish to reproduce the traditional family. At the same time, however, these men all planned on being "new," actively involved fathers who shoulder child-rearing responsibilities. Possible implications of holding concurrently traditional and progressive attitudes are discussed.

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The study presented here considered heterosexual women who chose to conceive and raise children together with gay men outside marriage. In-depth interviews with 10 Israeli mothers who had established hetero-gay families revealed their motivations for choosing this family configuration and the characteristics they sought in the fathers. The findings revealed that the women maintained traditional values with respect to the ideal parental model, two-gender parenting, and the attributes they sought for the coparents of their children. Rather than overtly challenge institutional patriarchy, these women chose to establish an alternative family that circumvented patriarchal impositions.

The purpose of this article is to understand how Mexican parents' perceive their voices (their concerns, dissatisfaction, and opinions) as integrated in child welfare cases and what factors hinder or promote this process. The focus is on parents' interactions with their child welfare worker during routine monthly home visits. Nineteen parents, with a history of immigration, participated in in-depth interviews for this qualitative study. Grounded theory methods were used to complete the content analysis. The findings indicate that there are three principal factors that affect parents' decisions to exercise their voice: 1) parent's perceptions of how workers received their voice; 2) case context, including immigration status and fear of loosing children; and 3) the lack of parental knowledge and understanding of the child welfare case process and support/advocacy agents. Recommendations include utilizing empowerment models and culturally grounded practices that facilitate the integration of parents' voices in the parentworker interactions and case process, and continued support for peer support interventions and formal forms of advocacy.

This study examines ERAN, Israel's unique national telephone helpline. We consider the role of the helpline in providing social support for single and married callers, an issue that has received little attention in the literature. We also examine how helpline use in Israel compares with what studies have shown about helpline use in other countries. Focusing on the issue of social support, the study compares married and single calls in their utilization of ERAN. The specific research questions were: (1) what kinds of problems do callers present?(2) what kinds of help do callers request?.Helplines have become an established component of many communities' social services. Their popularity stems from the helplines' accessibility, an increased willingness of people to seek help in times of stress, declining opportunities for intimate relationships, and, as some suggest, a preference for a 'quick fix' over traditional therapies (Goud, 1985). Ouchi and Johnson (1978) attribute the increase of helplines to the weakening of traditional sources of social support -the family, church, and community.

This conceptual article examines the structure and dynamics of the lesbian stepfamily. It argues for adopting a strengths perspective by considering the lesbian stepfamily as a distinctive family style in its own right Drawing upon the research literature on heterosexual stepfamilies, the article reviews the similarities and differences between these family styles. These include: parents' gender: family variations: stereotypes and social attitudes toward nontraditional families: formal marriage: previous losses: residential and nonresidential family members: parenting: and ambiguous role expectations. The article advocates culturally-appropriate practice tailored to the needs of lesbians within their family systems and considers implications for social work research.

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