Queering Methodologies to Understand Queer Families

TLDR

Queering questions that which is normative. The article aims to show how queering methodologies can reclaim and adapt mainstream research methods to generate new, diverse understandings of queer families. The authors review the development of queer family research and analyze key conceptual and methodological tensions—between identities, groups, and quantitative versus qualitative approaches—to illustrate how queering methodologies can be applied. The authors conclude that applying queering methodologies enables research that reflects queer families’ diversity and challenges normative and privileged systems.

Abstract

Queering questions that which is normative. In this article, we discuss how, for the study of queer families, queering methodologies could reclaim traditional research methods that reflect historically dominant or privileged paradigms. We suggest that queer perspectives may be used to adapt mainstream (i.e., dominant, positivist, empirical) methods, creating possibilities for new, diverse understandings of queer families. We start with comments on the development and current standing of queer family research. We then reflect on several key conceptual and methodological tensions as they apply to queer family studies: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals ↔ queer families, between‐group ↔ within‐group, and quantitative ↔ qualitative. In conclusion, we discuss how these methodological considerations provide researchers opportunities to conduct research not only about but for queer families. Such research may reflect the diversity of queer families and challenge the normativities and systems of privilege that constrain them.