The Desire to Marry and Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Family Legalization in a Sample of Italian Lesbians and Gay Men

Abstract

This is the first study evaluating the desire to marry and attitudes toward same-sex family legalization in an Italian sample of lesbians and gay males from 18 to 35 years of age. Even though the majority of participants reported a positive attitude toward same-sex family legalization, gay men expressed a lower desire to marry than lesbian participants. Participants with a high level of internalized sexual stigma were less likely to want to marry and to recognize the positive effects of the legal recognition of the same-sex family. Regression analyses showed the relevance of internalized sexual stigma, self-disclosure to family, political progressivism, and higher education to predict a desire to marry and a more positive attitude toward same-sex family legalization. The results point to the necessity of social policy reform to eliminate social and structural inequalities surrounding the pursuit of intimacy to reduce disparities in intimacy-related stressors of lesbians and gay men.

Adoção de crianças por casais homossexuais: as representações sociais

“…Por outro lado, estudos prévios identifi caram que as atitudes negativas estão sendo desconstruídas e perdendo espaço para crenças que contemplam o contexto de aceitação, as quais expressam o desejo de reduzir as disparidades sociais e implementar medidas públicas que marquem um novo momento, o de igualdade (Baiocco, Argalia, & Laghi, 2014;Freires, 2015). Como apontam Cecílio et al (2013), a visibilidade das famílias homoparentais como um contexto possível e não-tradicional tem forçado que se pense as relações de parentesco de diferentes perspectivas.…”

“…Destarte, não só as legislações apontam que o amparo legal deve ser consolidado, mas também a produção científi ca embasa que o desenvolvimento infantil em famílias homoparentais não causam danos biopsicossociais a criança e/ou adolescente (Baiocco et al, 2014;Cerqueira-Santos & Santana. 2015;Freires, 2015;Patterson, 2006).…”

Adoption of Children by Homosexual Couples: The Social Representations

“…On the other hand, previous studies have found that negative attitudes are being deconstructed and losing ground to beliefs that contemplate the context of acceptance and that express the desire to reduce social disparities and implement public measures that mark a new moment, that of equality (Baiocco, Argalia, & Laghi, 2014;Freires, 2015). As highlighted by Cecilio et al (2013), the visibility of same-sex parent families as a possible and non-traditional context has forced kinship relations to be thought about from different perspectives.…”

“…Thus, not only does the legislation highlight that legal protection should be consolidated, but the scientifi c production that underpins childhood development in same-sex parent families also shows that this does not cause biopsychosocial damage to the child and/ or adolescent (Baiocco et al, 2014;CerqueiraSantos & Santana, 2015;Freires, 2015;Patterson, 2006). An arduous adoption process hinders the realization of this, however, the persistence of LGBT couples means that there are numerous positively consolidated cases (Machin, 2016).…”

‘It's a bit too much fathering this seed’: the meaning-making of the sperm donor in Italian lesbian mother families

“…Despite the legal vacuum and the homophobic stigma (Baiocco et al, 2015;Lingiardi et al, 2016), an increasing number of gay men and lesbian women are becoming parents (Baiocco and Laghi, 2013;Baiocco et al, 2014). When lesbian women decide to have children within their current relationship, they have to turn to third-party reproduction offering a spectrum of possibilities regarding both donor arrangement (from open-identity to anonymous) and degrees of familiarity with the donor (from family members to strangers living in other countries).…”