Homosexuality and the Family

Disproving the notion that homosexuals are antifamily, this enlightening book details the variety of family forms in which gays and lesbians live and explores the effects of homosexuality on individuals in families and on the family as a whole. Little in the professional literature addresses the combined topics of homosexuality and the family, so practitioners, academicians, researchers, and students in various disciplines--counseling, gay studies, sociology, human sexuality, psychology, social work, law, and medicine--will discover a wealth of unique and useful material here. Arranged in a life history sequence that moves from adolescence to adulthood, this informative volume documents the responses of parents of gay children, wives of gay men, children of lesbian mothers, and gay fathers about their family lives.

Frederick. W. Bozett

Contents Preface - Coming Out to Parents and Self-Esteem Among Gay and Lesbian Youths - "You're a What?": Family Member Reactions to the Disclosure of Homosexuality - Response of Parents to Learning That Their Child Is Homosexual and Concern Over AIDS: A National Study - Heterosexual Women's Perceptions of Their Marriages to Bisexual or Homosexual Men - Lesbian Mothers and the Motherhood Hierarchy - A Comparative Study of Self-Esteem of Adolescent Children of Divorced Lesbian Mothers and Divorced Heterosexual Mothers - Gay Fathers: A Review of the Literature - The Value of Children to Gay and Heterosexual Fathers - Parenting Behaviors of Homosexual and Heterosexual Fathers - Afterword - Index