Lesbian Mothers

Lesbian Mothers PDF Author: Ellen Lewin
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150172004X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Within a society that long considered "lesbian motherhood" a contradiction in terms, what were the experiences of lesbian mothers at the end of the twentieth century? In this illuminating book, lesbian mothers tell their stories of how they became mothers; how they see their relationships with their children, relatives, lovers, and friends and with their children’s fathers and sperm donors; how they manage child-care arrangements and financial difficulties; and how they deal with threats to custody. Ellen Lewin’s unprecedented research on lesbian mothers in the San Francisco area captured a vivid portrait of the moment before gay and lesbian parenting moved into the mainstream of U.S. culture. Drawing on interviews with 135 women, Lewin provided her readers with a new understanding of the attitudes of individual women, the choices they made, and the texture of their daily lives.

Radical Relations

Radical Relations PDF Author: Daniel Winunwe Rivers
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469607190
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
In Radical Relations, Daniel Winunwe Rivers offers a previously untold story of the American family: the first history of lesbian and gay parents and their children in the United States. Beginning in the postwar era, a period marked by both intense repression and dynamic change for lesbians and gay men, Rivers argues that by forging new kinds of family and childrearing relations, gay and lesbian parents have successfully challenged legal and cultural definitions of family as heterosexual. These efforts have paved the way for the contemporary focus on family and domestic rights in lesbian and gay political movements. Based on extensive archival research and 130 interviews conducted nationwide, Radical Relations includes the stories of lesbian mothers and gay fathers in the 1950s, lesbian and gay parental activist networks and custody battles, families struggling with the AIDS epidemic, and children growing up in lesbian feminist communities. Rivers also addresses changes in gay and lesbian parenthood in the 1980s and 1990s brought about by increased awareness of insemination technologies and changes in custody and adoption law.

Lesbian Mothers

Lesbian Mothers PDF Author: Ellen Lewin
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150172004X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Within a society that long considered "lesbian motherhood" a contradiction in terms, what were the experiences of lesbian mothers at the end of the twentieth century? In this illuminating book, lesbian mothers tell their stories of how they became mothers; how they see their relationships with their children, relatives, lovers, and friends and with their children’s fathers and sperm donors; how they manage child-care arrangements and financial difficulties; and how they deal with threats to custody. Ellen Lewin’s unprecedented research on lesbian mothers in the San Francisco area captured a vivid portrait of the moment before gay and lesbian parenting moved into the mainstream of U.S. culture. Drawing on interviews with 135 women, Lewin provided her readers with a new understanding of the attitudes of individual women, the choices they made, and the texture of their daily lives.

Women in Love

Women in Love PDF Author: Barbara Seyda
Publisher: Bulfinch Press
ISBN: 9780821225233
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Looks at the daily realities of parenting and living as a lesbian in the United States

Different Daughters

Different Daughters PDF Author: Louise Rafkin
Publisher: Cleis Press
ISBN: 1573448559
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
"This book will help your mom understand. Give it to her."—Betty DeGeneres Coming out to mom is a lesbian rite of passage. In Different Daughters, thirty mothers of lesbians come together to trace their journeys towards acceptance of their daughters. Facing their fears and confusion, prejudice and misunderstandings, they speak honesty and bravely about the difficulties and joys of life with their "different daughters." Writing about families, community, religion, grandchildren, bisexuality, transgender issues, and coming out, the authors of Different Daughters raise questions shared by all mothers: How can we accept our children for who they are? How can we love our children even when they are different from us? This updated and expanded third edition of Louise Rafkin's landmark anthology includes new stories by mothers of bisexual women and young lesbians, a sister of a lesbian, and the brave testimony of one mother whose lesbian daughter is in the process of redefining her gender.

Fixing Gender

Fixing Gender PDF Author: Natasha Distiller
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson
ISBN: 1611470315
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Fixing Gender uses psychoanalysis to explore the theoretical implications for the gendering of the human subject that arise from the situation of lesbians raising children from birth. In the face of the powerful evidence of the ways gender operates, and in the deep structural ways the logic of gender perpetuates, both made visible by psychoanalysis, this book asks: Is gender always fixed? Can the system which is produced by, and which produces, gender be altered? Can gender be fixed? The work begins by sketching the implications of gender as elucidated by feminist thinkers in general and feminist psychoanalytic thinkers in particular. Moving to Freud's theory of the subject, the work examines the logic of the Oedipus complex, and from there it looks at what feminist object relations theorists have done with and to the logic of the Oedipus complex. The book then moves to the literature on lesbian family functioning; and finally the work ends with a radical interrogation into the possibilities enabled by paying attention to form, and highlighting its constitutive possibilities.

Confessions of the Other Mother

Confessions of the Other Mother PDF Author: Harlyn Aizley
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 9780807079638
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
One of the few books to explore lesbian parenting, these “hilarious, heart-wrenching, painfully honest tales of mommyhood” celebrate the ups and downs of being an LGBTQIA+ parent in the 21st century (Joey Solloway, creator of Transparent). After author Harlyn Aizley gave birth to her daughter, she watched in unanticipated horror as her partner scooped up the baby and said, “I'm your new mommy!” While they both had worked to find the perfect sperm donor, Aizley had spent nine months carrying the baby and hours in labor, so how could her partner claim to be their child's mommy? Many diapers later, Aizley began to appreciate the complexity of her partner’s new role as the other mother. Together, they searched for stories about families like their own, in which a woman has chosen to forgo her own birth experience so that she might support her partner in hers. They found very few. Now, in Confessions of the Other Mother, Aizley has put together an exciting collection of personal stories by women like her partner who are creating new parenting roles, redefining motherhood, and reshaping our view of two-parent families. Contributors include Hillary Goodridge, who was one of the lead plaintiffs in the case for same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, stand-up comedian Judy Gold, and psychologist and author Suzanne M. Johnson. This candid peek into a previously unexamined side of lesbian parenting is full of stories that are sometimes humorous, sometimes moving, but at all times celebratory. Each parenting tale sheds light on the many facets of motherhood, offering gay and straight readers alike a deeper understanding of what it means to love and parent in the twenty-first century.

Different Mothers

Different Mothers PDF Author: Louise Rafkin
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
In a valuable resource, several sons and daughters of lesbians candidly discuss their experiences growing up, offering hope to other families of gays and lesbians.

Chicana Lesbians

Chicana Lesbians PDF Author: Carla Trujillo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Literary Nonfiction. LGBT Studies. "CHICANA LESBIANS is a love poem, a bible, a dictionary, nothing so simple as a manifesto--this book is yet another reason to believe--to believe in the girls our mothers warned us about, brown girls, lesbians, making their own love poems, bibles, dictionaries, manifestoes, reasons to believe."--Dorothy Allison "When I was selling books at a Chicana conference, I noticed book buyers were literally afraid to touch this anthology. I say now what I said then, 'Don't be scared. Sexuality is not contagious, but ignorance is.' If you've ever been curious, been there, been voyeur, been tourist, or just plain under-informed, misinformed, or unaffirmed, here is a book to listen to and learn from".--Sandra Cisneros

Lesbian Intimacies and Family Life

Lesbian Intimacies and Family Life PDF Author: Rebecca Jennings
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350358886
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Focusing on patterns of intimacy, this book traces the historical roots of parenting practices and familial patterns constructed by lesbians and same-sex attracted women living in Britain and Australia between 1945 and 2000. It foregrounds women's unique lived experiences, as they expressed desire, fell in love, and created families against the backdrop of changing cultural, legal, and medical attitudes to female same-sex desire in the late 20th century. Including almost 100 original oral history interviews conducted by the author, Lesbian Intimacies and Family Life reveals the subjective histories of lesbian intimacy during the period, both highlighting the huge variety in women's experiences, and tracing shifting patterns of relationship and family formation. Combined with analysis of representations of lesbian intimacy in literature, press articles, medical texts, and archival material, the book demonstrates the ways in which changing political and cultural concepts of sexuality impacted on individual and collective attitudes. With a unique transnational perspective, Jennings uncovers how feminist and lesbian networks between Britain and Australia promoted knowledge sharing and helped foster change in the familial practices of each country – such as through the adoption of reproductive technologies and alternate routes into motherhood. Through considering the rise of divorce and challenges to traditional marriage practices in the period, this book highlights how lesbian relationships provided alternative models of interpersonal relations, impacting on broader patterns of sexuality, and helping redefine notions of the family in the modern era.

For Lesbian Parents

For Lesbian Parents PDF Author: Suzanne M. Johnson
Publisher: Guilford Press
ISBN: 1462506232
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Raising a child is overwhelming, thrilling, exhausting, terrifying, and joyous--and all at the same time. In addition to the adjustments that any new parents must make, lesbian mothers face numerous special questions and concerns. From "coming out" to your child to coping with the pressures of trying to be a lesbian super-mom, this wise and reassuring book offers information and support for women forging a new path in what it means to be a family. The authors are uniquely qualified for the task as expert developmental psychologists who are also coparenting two young daughters. With clarity and wit, they offer helpful advice on what kids need to know, and at what age; how to help them respond to questions and teasing from peers; ways to foster sensitivity in relatives, teachers, and others; how to talk to teens about their own developing sexuality; how parenting affects couple relationships; and much more. Chapters are packed with the insights and experiences of lesbians who have come to be parents in a variety of ways. Also included are listings of useful web sites, publications, and other resources. Winner--Best Parenting Book, ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards