Family in transition: parents, children and grandparents in lesbian families give meaning to ‘doing family’

Abstract

Lesbian parents, their children and grandparents ‘do family’ in rich and diverse ways. This article draws on innovative grounded theory research using qualitative, multi‐generational family interviews with twenty lesbian‐parented families living in Victoria, Australia. The intersection between the public and the private in lesbian family life has been seriously neglected by family researchers, and in particular the perspectives of family members other than the lesbian parents themselves. This article addresses the question of ‘How members of lesbian‐parented families define and describe their family’, and the results reported here focus on children's and grandparents' views, because they are the voices less well represented in the literature. Children and grandparents straddle both mainstream and marginalized spaces as they negotiate contemporary family life. We examine the interface and tensions between the traditional and the transformative, and the implications of these findings for family therapists are briefly discussed.

The spatial and gendered politics of displaying family: exploring material cultures in grandfathers’ homes

“…Within the current research landscape, focus on the meaning of family relationships and identities for older people and grandparents remains relatively absent, as the everyday spaces of parenting persists as a dominant concern. In a wider societal context where grandparents are increasingly relied upon for childcare (Wellard 2012) and are key resources for understanding postmodern family formations (Perlesz et al 2006), there is need for much greater attention to the everyday spaces of grandparenting (Tarrant 2010). This is especially pertinent to men, in a social and cultural context where the emergence of a 'new' grandfatherhood, shaped by public ideologies of the 'involved father' relating to childcare and family support (Mann and Leeson 2010) has been identified, but also where ageing and associated life transitions are feared and have significant implications for men and their identities.…”

Discursive Struggles Animating Individuals’ Talk About Their Parents’ Coming Out as Lesbian or Gay

“…These anti-gay discourses in U.S. American culture may serve to give children a sense of shame about their family identity, and may lead them to hide their family identity (Murray & McClintock, 2005;Perlesz et al, 2006). Hiding familial identity, however, may bring consequences of stress and isolation for children with lesbian and gay parents (Goldberg, 2010).…”

A review of gay and lesbian parented families’ travel motivations and destination choices: gaps in research and future directions

“…This need is not bound with Iso-Ahola's (1980) construct of escaping. Rather, in the context of gay tourism, it refers to a need to avoid the pressures of living in a heteronormative society in which heterosexuality is assumed as the norm (Perlesz et al 2006). As Waitt and Markwell (2006, 5) remark, travel is a 'mechanism to escape the literal straitjacket of the everyday "closet".…”

“…If most everyday public spaces are dominated by heteronormative presumptions, tourism and leisure spaces are no different. Rather than simply being physical locales, tourism spaces are social constructions where identities are negotiated (Pritchard et al 2000), and most holiday sites are characterised by a fluidity of the separation between the public and private arenas (Perlesz et al 2006). Tourists share common areas, like swimming pools and beaches, for considerable amounts of time, causing spatial and social boundaries to blur.…”