Families Like Mine : Children of gay parents tell it like it is

Author(s): Abigail Garner

LGBTIQ+ Parents

Abigail Garner was five years old when her parents divorced and her dad came out as gay. Like the millions of children growing up in these families today, she often found herself in the middle of the political and moral debates surrounding lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) parenting.


Drawing on a decade of community organizing, and interviews with more than fifty grown sons and daughters of LGBT parents, Garner addresses such topics as coming out to children, facing homophobia at school, co-parenting with ex-partners, the impact of AIDS, and the children's own sexuality. Both practical and deeply personal, Families Like Mine provides an invaluable insider's perspective for LGBT parents, their families, and their allies.


 


Product Information

"Families Like Mine does for LGBT families what And the Band Played On did for AIDS." -- Esera Tualo, retired NFL star linebacker

 

"Now Garner, who created the site FamiliesLikeMine.com, attempts to do the same for teens, young adults and their families by interweaving her experiences growing up with a gay father and straight mother with those of other children who were raised by lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender parents. She intends "to advocate for our families to be just that: families." Although there is no exact figure for the number of children who have grown up in LGBT families over the past two decades (estimates vary from one million to 16 million), the issues Garner raises about the messages that we pass on to our children "on what a "well-adjusted" child is; on the risks and advantages of coming out (for both parents and children); and on the effects of a 'homo-hostile' world affect increasing numbers of children whose parents are straight or queer. Despite Garner's decision to interview only children in their 20s and 30s, their concerns about finding a way to name family members (e.g., should a lesbian mother's long-term partner be called a 'step-mom'? Are that step-mom's children stepsisters or -brothers?) and learning how to maintain nontraditional families in the wake of a parent's death or the breakup of a relationship between parent and partner, will reverberate for young people confronting similar difficulties. Nor does Garner flinch from addressing the complex issues surrounding what it means for children raised in LGBT families, herself included, to be, in the words of advocate Stefan Lynch, 'culturally queer, erotically straight.'" --Publishers Weekly

General Fields

  • : 9780060527587
  • : Perennial
  • : Perennial
  • : 0.227
  • : March 2005
  • : 205mm X 169mm X 19mm
  • : United States
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : 288
  • : 306.87408664
  • : Paperback / softback
  • : Abigail Garner