We’re Coming Out as a Family All the Time: Lesbian-Headed Families Navigating Public Space

• In Event: 054 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. Family Strengths and Challenges

Abstract

Traditionally, the act of ‘coming out’ has been understood as a phenomenon experienced by individuals coming to terms with a non-normative sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and typically includes the process of revealing that identity to others. As such, it is often characterized as existing within a specific, time-constrained period of an individual’s life. For lesbian families, however, the coming out process is a collective experience involving both the parents and the child or children. This paper focuses on the issues faced and strategies employed by lesbian mothers when moving through public settings in which interactions tend to be casual, limited, and with strangers. The issues raised by these interactions differ in a variety of ways from those raised in institutional interactions (i.e., those which occur in institutional settings that are typically more formally structured, extended, and involve ongoing relationships with representatives of the institution). Of chief interest in this paper are the factors that shape these women’s decisions about when and whether to ‘come out’ as a lesbian family, and the complications presented by naming family relationships in casual interactions with people embedded in a culture that lacks language to clearly delineate the identities and roles of same-sex parents.

Author

• Marianne Cutler, East Stroudsburg University