Same-Sex Marriage Policies and Lesbian Family Life

Abstract

The varied input stemming from a number of fields and concentrations has resulted in a truly interdisciplinary piece of scholarship, and for that I am very grateful. I am especially grateful to have garnered the participants that made this project so exception. Their lived experiences give meaning and importance to the subject matter. It is a pleasure to thank those who have supported me in other facets of my life. Thank you to my parents, Frank and Ann Marie, and my sisters, Celeste and Chrissy, for being patient with me throughout this process. I know I can be a difficult person. I would also like to express my gratitude to my friends and colleagues who shared their ideas and helped me keep going until I finished writing: Amanda Rich, Kelley Perkins, Caitlin Bailey, and Sarah Yarrusso. On the home front, thank you to Katherine Fallon for giving me the space I needed to focus all of my energy on this project; you truly are the bee's knees. I would also like to thank SAGE Publications for permission to use a copyrighted figure, originally published in J.W. Creswell's (2007) Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches" (2 nd ed.), p. 151.

Exploring Tendencies in Migrants’ Legal Consciousness Research and Uncovering Factors for Socio-Legal Integration

“…If to address the last decades of the research field in legal consciousness, there could be noticed a sprung of the diversity of investigations. A considerably large number of research aspirations come in line with a narrower focus to the particular aspects of legal consciousness referring to gender (Bendall & Harding, 2018;Digregorio, 2016;Park et al, 2016), religion (Arsenovich et al, 2019;Barak-Corren, 2017), migration or minority aspects (S. Graca, 2018;Ho & Chua, 2016). The branching of the research area has also led to more elaborate reviews regards the researches on legal consciousness.…”

The Legal Vulnerability Model for Same-Sex Parent Families: A Mixed Methods Systematic Review and Theoretical Integration

“…The instances (i.e., the rejection within the legal system or its actors) outlined above are not only expected, but also anxiously anticipated. Pervasive safety concerns found within our review illustrate this anxious expectation of legal rejection that members in same-sex parent families experience due to their legal vulnerability (e.g., Shapiro et al, 2009 ; Rostosky et al, 2010 ; Goldberg et al, 2013 ; Kazyak, 2015 ; DiGregorio, 2016 ; Zhabenko, 2019 ). Conversely, strong institutional support through anti-discrimination laws and legal recognition of relationships might reduce legal rejection sensitivity, as evidence from our review suggests (Vučković Juroš, 2019b ).…”

“…Our review suggests that the legal recognition of the interparental or the parent-child relationship is associated with increased feelings of family legitimacy, stability, normalcy, and cohesion for all family members (Short, 2007 ; Porche and Purvin, 2008 ; Goldberg and Kuvalanka, 2012 ; DiGregorio, 2016 ; Gash and Raiskin, 2018 ; Malmquist et al, 2020 ), and also in the perception of others (e.g., Hequembourg and Farrell, 1999 ; Rawsthorne, 2013 ; Vučković Juroš, 2019b ; Stambolis-Ruhstorfer and Descoutures, 2020 ). Conversely, lacking legal recognition has been described as being associated with feelings of diminished family legitimacy, notably only with regard to others, in studies within our review (Goldberg and Allen, 2013 ; Gash and Raiskin, 2018 ).…”

“…Moderating characteristics on the couple level found in our review are the gender of the couple (e.g., Taylor, 2011;, and their socioeconomic status (which enables the engagement in many counteractions, particularly those related to legally securing the family structure; e.g., Taylor, 2011;Goldberg and Kuvalanka, 2012;Kazyak, 2015;DiGregorio, 2016).…”

“…Evidence suggests that families also choose to ignore legal limitations (e.g., a non-legal parent acting as a legal guardian; e.g., Rawsthorne, 2013;Wheeler et al, 2018) or engage in symbolic actions such as commitment ceremonies or sharing the same last name (e.g., Bergen et al, 2006;DiGregorio, 2016;Zamperini et al, 2016;Bacchus, 2018;Wheeler et al, 2018). Families also advocate for legal change (Dalton and Bielby, 2000;Brown et al, 2009;Park et al, 2016;Gash and Raiskin, 2018;Wheeler et al, 2018), or actively engage other people in their family life (e.g., to create allyship or convey guardianship arrangements in the case of the legal parent's death; Dalton and Bielby, 2000;Butterfield and Padavic, 2014;Park et al, 2016;Gash and Raiskin, 2018).…”