{"id":6695,"date":"2018-03-20T10:19:46","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T15:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/?p=6695"},"modified":"2018-03-20T10:19:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T15:19:46","slug":"recognizing-diversity-in-gay-parenting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2018\/03\/20\/recognizing-diversity-in-gay-parenting\/","title":{"rendered":"Recognizing Diversity in Gay Parenting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Adrian V. Floyd, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the United States, the media often portrays marginalized groups through tropes and stereotypes, but these depictions rarely represent the diversity inherent in any group. \u00a0A recent\u00a0<\/span>article<\/span><\/a> in <\/span>Slate<\/span><\/i>\u00a0demonstrates<\/span>\u00a0that queer parents are no exception. The author draws on sociological work to examine how the gay-parenting community may reinforce this uniform image of gay parents in their social circles. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sociologist <\/span>Suzanna Walters<\/span><\/a>\u00a0argues that the gay community has limited its own image, members, and freedom in exchange for social acceptance. In her\u00a0<\/span>book<\/span><\/a>, she explains, <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMedia evinces a form of homophobia\u2026focusing on acceptance of gay parents as heterosexual clones,\u201d — in particular, the \u201cideal heterosexual\u201d(white, upper-middle class, etc.). Parents who didn\u2019t fit a certain mold were sidelined to present a comforting image to straight society.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Megan Carroll<\/span><\/a> noticed a similar pattern after attending gay parent groups in Texas, California, and Utah. Carroll noticed that fathers of color were severely underrepresented in these groups, and many parents of color told Carroll they felt \u201cisolated\u201d and without a space to \u201chelp their children connect to their race as well as their father\u2019s sexuality.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gay dads with kids from previous heterosexual marriages faced a similar feeling of \u201cotherness.\u201d Gay dads by divorce were perceived as \u201crelics of a bygone era,\u201d while adoption or surrogacy were viewed as modern forms of parenting. Even groups that advertised themselves as being inclusive often fell short, including a group in Texas. Carroll remembers, <\/span><\/p>\n

“when you showed up in person, the community was very insular towards adoption and surrogacy dads.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Parenting groups and resources are an important tool for any caregiver, and as Carroll\u2019s work outlines, parenting communities need to consider how to make these spaces more inclusive for all types of parents. She concludes, <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSegregation of gay fathers by pathway to parenthood is not an accident\u2026It\u2019s very much rooted in these networks fostered within the gay parenting community. If we\u2019re not creating resources specifically for gay fathers from different backgrounds…it\u2019s very unlikely they\u2019re going to benefit from the resources already in place.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the United States, the media often portrays marginalized groups through tropes and stereotypes, but these depictions rarely represent the diversity inherent in any group. \u00a0A recent\u00a0article in Slate\u00a0demonstrates\u00a0that queer parents are no exception. The author draws on sociological work to examine how the gay-parenting community may reinforce this uniform image of gay parents in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,55,13],"tags":[39112,19484,2715,104044,39114,57,39110,21526,102568,19376,4374,176],"class_list":["post-6695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-gender","category-inequality","tag-culture","tag-father","tag-fatherhood","tag-gay-parenting","tag-gender","tag-homosexuality","tag-inequality","tag-lgbtq","tag-parent","tag-parenthood","tag-parenting","tag-sexuality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6695"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6718,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6695\/revisions\/6718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}