Chosen Family: An exploratory study of contemporary expanded usage

• In Event: Reimagining Families: Singlehood, Childfree, and Chosen Families

Abstract

This exploratory study examines how the concept of chosen family, originally popularized by Kath Weston (1991) to describe queer kinship networks formed amidst the HIV/AIDS epidemic, is being used and understood contemporarily in the U.S. While scholarship has primarily centered marginalized communities, less is known about the concept’s expanded uptake among relatively privileged populations. Drawing on reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) of five widely accessible internet guides and two in-depth interviews with middle-class adults, this paper analyzes public-facing narratives alongside lived experiences. Findings from the online guides reveal an instrumental and individualized framing of chosen family, encouraging readers to optimize relationships for self-actualization and mental health while largely omitting structural conditions shaping kinship. This reflects a broader neoliberalization of care, in which belonging becomes a self-managed project. Additionally, the interviews demonstrated that chosen family relationships can coexist with families of origin but still reify a family-first ethic of obligation, economic sacrifice, and prioritization. Choice emerges as both empowering and destabilizing, enabling agency while maintaining revocability. Together, these findings highlight the expansion and transformation of a historically queer concept and call for further research on its political, economic, and cultural implications.

Author

• Violet Fox, University of California Santa Barbara