Queering Methodologies to Understand Queer Families

Fish, Jessica N.; Russell, Stephen T.

doi:10.1111/fare.12297

Cited by 98 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…Although the scholarship on transpersons within the context of family is burgeoning, a need remains for studies that explore gender complexity and within‐group gender identity variation among transgender youth (Diamond, Pardo, & Butterworth, ). This need is consistent with Fish and Russell's () suggestions for queering methodologies such that research is conducted for queer families, which was done here.…”

supporting

confidence: 89%

Family Boundary Ambiguity Among Transgender Youth

Catalpa

McGuire

2018

Family Relations

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Objective To explore family boundary ambiguity in the parent–child relationships of transgender youth. Background Transgender youth may perceive a lack of clarity about whether parents will accept their authentic gender expression, continue to support them physically and emotionally, and regard them as a member of the family. Uncertainty about being in or out of the family and whether family relationships endure is stressful and can lead to psychological distress, a sense of ambiguous loss, and frozen grief. Method Ethnographic content analysis was conducted based on interviews with 90 transgender youth recruited from community centers in 10 regions across 3 countries. Results Narratives revealed that transgender youth experienced family boundary ambiguity related to relational ambiguity, structural ambiguity, and identity ambiguity. Each experience of ambiguity obscured whether participants remained in the family and interpersonally connected to their parents. Conclusion Transgender youth actively navigated complex and ambiguous parent–child relationships whereby participants attempted to reconcile their need for authentic gender expression combined with their need for family connectedness and acceptance. Implications Family clinicians, educators, and policymakers are urged to consider family and transgender resilience through a lens of ambiguous loss and to promote a gender‐affirmative life‐span approach to clinical care for transgender individuals and their families.

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supporting

confidence: 89%

Family Boundary Ambiguity Among Transgender Youth

Catalpa

McGuire

2018

Family Relations

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“…Studying these underinvestigated, yet not uncommon, scenarios would strengthen our understanding of the coming‐out experience for LGB individuals and their families by expanding the range of empirical inquiry and theoretical understanding of the coming‐out experience within the families of LGB individuals. These also are in line with calls to queer the field's methodologies, including those that help examine within‐group variations and intersectionality (Fish & Russell, ).…”

supporting

confidence: 58%

Scaffolding in Family Relationships: A Grounded Theory of Coming Out to Family

Jhang

2018

Family Relations

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Objective To challenge the conceptualization that disclosure means coming out by creating a model of coming out inclusive of various lived experiences. Background Coming out has traditionally been conceptualized in Western literature as disclosing one's sexual minority identity to self and others. However, this conceptualization may not generalize to a collectivistic culture such as Taiwan. Method Two waves of interview data with 28 Taiwanese lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals were used to establish a grounded theory of coming out to family. Results This grounded theory's core category is scaffolding for a stable family relationship, in which coming out is a scaffolding process. Three key propositions in this emergent theory are (a) LGB individuals and their parents have different sets of expectations for personal and family life that need to be reconciled, (b) scaffolding efforts create an iterative process in that they could either facilitate or inhibit reconciliation, and (c) the iterative process of scaffolding is influenced by a host of factors. Conclusion This study established a grounded theory of coming out for Taiwanese LGB individuals and their families in which disclosures are often absent and scaffolding to reach goals is key. Implications Cultural background and the prolonged iterative process of coming out should be considered when theorizing about and providing relevant professional services to this population.

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“…These tensions also point to the dangers in automatically associating later life stages with greater resiliency (see also Fish & Russell, ). Much like adult LGBTQ individuals, adult children of LGBTQ parents will have faced some early‐in‐life challenges (e.g., hearing negative comments about LGBTQ people from classmates) that prepare them for adult life as part of a nonnormative family (Witten & Eyler, ).…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where Are the Adult Children of LGBTQ Parents? A Critical Review

Garwood

Lewis

2019

J of Family Theo & Revie

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Family researchers have cultivated a keen interest in the lives of individuals raised by gay and lesbian parents. Most of this research, however, focuses on childhood rather than later life stages. We suggest in this critical review that being raised by a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) parent or parents has implications for adulthood and the life course more broadly. The complex landscapes that these individuals navigate, which include families, social networks, communities, regions, and the state, can create ambivalence in both relationships and institutional settings such as school and work. We identify four areas in which the life courses of these adult children become “queered,” even for those who do not identify as LGBTQ themselves: disclosure, discrimination, interpersonal and community relationships, and sexual citizenship. We identify elder care, health, and new nonnormative family formations as important areas for future research.

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Queering Methodologies to Understand Queer Families

Cited by 98 publications

References 96 publications

Family Boundary Ambiguity Among Transgender Youth

Family Boundary Ambiguity Among Transgender Youth

Scaffolding in Family Relationships: A Grounded Theory of Coming Out to Family

Where Are the Adult Children of LGBTQ Parents? A Critical Review

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