Building a Rainbow Family: Parenthood Aspirations of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender/Gender Diverse Individuals

Abstract

Throughout the last century and the beginning of the present one, multiple events have contributed to the legitimization of families formed by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/gender diverse individuals (LGBT). First, the social roles of men and women have come to be seen as not irrevocably linked to their sex assigned at birth. Second, the civil rights movements, including theLGBT movement (Pichardo, 2009), played a major role in reclaiming individual and family rights of sexual and gender minority individuals. Third, reproductive technologies have allowed for the birth of children without heterosexual intercourse. As a result of the above-mentioned advances, same-sex marriage and same-sex parenting have been legalized in many countries (Flores, 2019), and parenthood is nowadays a desired and anticipated life goal independent of individuals' sexual orientation and/or gender identity (

The Prospective Co-Parenting Relationship Scale (PCRS) for Sexual Minority and Heterosexual People: Preliminary Validation

“…Nonetheless only one item was specific to sexual minority people: "My partner will be less comfortable in raising our child because of not having a female/male role model at home". In fact, this seems to be a type of stigma concerning sexual minority parenthood [64,65] and might be internalized [66].…”

“…The different profile of prospective coparenting for sexual minority groups compared to their heterosexual peers in terms of the role of anticipated stigma has indicated the need to enhance resilience in the face of social prejudice against sexual minority parents. In this regard, therapists should consider the role of internalized discrimination [65] in clinical interventions with sexual minority prospective parents. Furthermore, longitudinal studies that track participants through the prospective coparenting relationship until the first years of parenting might highlight the different needs of sexual minority parents across the family life-cycle [21,74].…”

What Would It Be Like to Be a Parent? Exploring the Role of Sexual Orientation and Culture on Perceptions of Parenthood in the Future

“…Despite advances in assisted reproduction techniques (ART) techniques and the opening up of adoption to same-gender couples in many countries, having children is still considered a prerogative of heterosexuality and research interest in the way LGB individuals envisage parenthood is quite recent (Allen & Mendez, 2018;Gato et al, 2021). Heteronormativity, that is to say the reinforcement of the beliefs and practices within social institutions and policies that legitimize and privilege heterosexuality (van der Toorn et al, 2020;Warner, 1993), has kept sexual and gender minority individuals in a disadvantaged vulnerable position also regarding their family formation plans (Baiocco et al, 2014;Lasio et al, 2019;Lasio et al, 2020).…”

“…Heteronormativity, that is to say the reinforcement of the beliefs and practices within social institutions and policies that legitimize and privilege heterosexuality (van der Toorn et al, 2020;Warner, 1993), has kept sexual and gender minority individuals in a disadvantaged vulnerable position also regarding their family formation plans (Baiocco et al, 2014;Lasio et al, 2019;Lasio et al, 2020). For instance, sexual minority individuals' parenthood aspirations may be hampered by a belief that their sexual orientation is immoral, that they would be less competent as a parent than their heterosexual peers, that every child should have a mother and a father, that a child could be harmed if they were to be raised by a same-gender couple, or that a child might be exposed to sexual minority stress because of being raised by a same-gender couple (for a review studies about the impact of minority stress on parenthood prospects of sexual minority individuals see Gato et al, 2021).…”

“…Leal et al (2019) did not find any differences in these aspects between heterosexual and LGB individuals studied in either the UK and Portugal. Entry into parenthood is usually a more costly social and economic undertaking for sexual minority than for heterosexual persons, given the anticipated expenditure associated with ART and adoption (Gato et al, 2021). In fact, Tate and Patterson (2019) found that lesbian women perceived parenthood as having a considerable economic cost and that this alone largely accounted for parenthood aspirations differences between them and their heterosexual counterparts.…”