Becoming parents, remaining childfree: How same -sex couples are creating families and confronting social inequalities.

Studies of the organization of lesbigay kinship and family life in the U.S. have proliferated in recent years. What has received less attention is how lesbigay couples come to remain childfree or to have children after coming out, how they navigate the process of acquiring children, what these processes mean to them, and how they understand the family-building and transforming projects with which they are engaged. Through in-depth interviews with 61 self-identified lesbigays regarding how they came to have children or remain childfree, this project reveals the challenges posed by homophobia and heterosexism and showcases lesbigays' creativity, resiliency and resourcefulness as they build families after coming out. The central argument of this dissertation is that lesbigays' experiences with parenthood decisions can be seen both as creative strategies to deal with institutionalized and interpersonal heterosexism, homophobia, and discrimination and as a reflection of hegemonic, heteronormative understandings of what family means. This dissertation extends three bodies of work. First, it extends Seidman's analysis of the closet and the incomplete routinization of lesbigay identities by analyzing how living beyond the closet has affected people's decisions to become parents or remain childfree. Second, it extends Lewin's work on strategies of resistance and accommodation by highlighting three specific strategies that sexual minority parents use to claim their right to parent: (1) rainbow strategies, which draw on heteronormative ideals and on gay pride to help lesbigay parents make parenthood choices; (2) creative biology, which includes a series of strategies that parents used to enhance connections with their children by emphasizing (or blurring) the biogenetic ties to each parent; and (3) disclosure practices that prospective parents use to strategically conceal or reveal their sexuality during the process of acquiring children. Third, it expands scholarly research on voluntary childlessness to include lesbigay couples' experiences. Most lesbigays listed a combination of reasons for being childfree that did not differ significantly from heterosexuals' rationale, including enjoyment of their lives, cost of children, and concerns about work-family balance. Fears of homophobia and discrimination played a role in some people's decision-making. Implications for social science research and public policy are addressed.Ph.D.Individual and family studiesSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/126626/2/3276096.pd