After coming out: Parental acceptance of young lesbian and gay people

Abstract

This study examines extant scholarly knowledge on parental acceptance of young lesbian and gay people in traditional heteronormative families. Recent literature shows that parents generally accept their lesbian and gay children. However, parents do not always accept them immediately after they come out. Acceptance takes time, and transitioning to acceptance is often a complex process that depends on parents' access to the necessary resources for coping with the stresses of knowing that their child identifies as lesbian or gay. These resources include counseling or therapy, supportive friends and extended family, and a network of other parents with lesbian and gay children. This study also highlights the need for further research on parental acceptance in nontraditional families and of children with other nonheterosexual identities, such as asexuality, gray ace, bisexuality, or pansexuality. It also calls for an exploration of the complexities of parental acceptance as an ongoing process rather than as a singular event.

The family as gender and sexuality factory: A review of the literature and future directions

“…Therefore, it makes sense to focus on parents' role in the development and performance of children's heterosexuality. For an excellent recent review on how parents respond to and contend with children's nonheterosexuality, see Ghosh (2020). However, I do draw on some literature about children's nonheterosexuality when necessary.…”

Adolescent Sexual Development: A Family Perspective

“…Qualitative and quantitative studies reveal that positive family relationships and family acceptance are protective factors for racially diverse SMY and associated with increased well-being into adulthood (Katz-Wise et al, 2016;Lawson et al, 2019). Parent-child relationships following disclosure tend to get better over time, even if the initial reactions were negative (Ghosh, 2019). In a longitudinal, multi-wave study of 232 racially diverse LGBT adolescents, McConnell et al (2016) found that SMY who reported no family support at time one reported a significant increase in family support over time.…”

“…By recruiting multiple family members for studies on this topic, researchers can address how systems of relationships between parents, adolescents, siblings, and extended family members socialize adolescents. For example, research on SMY identity disclosure indicates that SMY are more likely to first disclose to their mother rather than their father and less likely to report disclosing to their father than their mothers during adolescence (e.g., Ghosh, 2019;Katz-Wise et al, 2016). How does disclosure influence who is responsible for communicating about sex with SMY adolescents?…”

Using chi-squared automatic interaction detection modelling to identify student opinion profiles regarding same-sex couples as a family structure

“…Taking this Franco-Latin standpoint, Laguna (2016) indicates that in using this term we refer to the dichotomy between heteroparental and same-sex, giving the impression that one of the classifications (heteroparental) is considered to be superior to the other, given that it is linked to social reproduction. From this conception, the term could serve to present census data, without understanding the complex diversity that can be found amongst gay fathers and lesbian mothers ( Farr et al., 2019 ; Ghosh, 2019 ; Watson et al., 2019 ).…”