Activist Parenting and GLBTQ Families

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article utilizes examples from four different feminist, constructionist, sociological research projects to illustrate the centrality of activist parenting to current understandings of GLBTQ-related parenting and GLBTQ family studies. Specifically, we suggest that GLBTQ-related parenting can be better understood if we pay attention to how it is political, relational, and specific. We begin the article by reviewing key work about activist mothering. Next, we discuss research about parents in PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) to show how a form of activist parenting is central to their narratives. We then briefly discuss three other research examples of GLBT-related parenting to further illustrate how different forms of GLBTQ-related parenting today are political, race/class/gender/sexuality specific, and related to each other.