The Importance Of Gay Family

What is a family? How are families shaped and what effect do they have on society? In the United States a family consists of both parents, one’s self, siblings (biological or adoptive) and extended family members; however, this is not the case around the world. The concept of family and who is family changes in each culture, but is mostly centered around who is kin and who a person marries. Family, kin, and marriage are established through how society decides their lineage, which establishes cultural rituals within the society.

Family. It is a very fluid yet rigid idea. It has a wealth of definitions, all of which range in degree and magnitude, and vary from person to person; yet the concept of how a family should work and operate is very concrete in most American minds. Family is a bond that is crafted every second of everyday until it is powerful, and this can shape beliefs, outlooks, and confidence. A study found that children with father figures that are highly involved benefit because an immense range of emotions are modelled to them as children, and consequently they will be more adapt at recognizing and expressing their own emotions. In contrast children

There are many different family dynamics in today’s society. But what really makes a family? Every definition found has defined family, in simple terms, as “A father and a mother raising their children together.” However, not every family is like that. Most families are not like that at all. Different aspects come into play in families such as divorce, death, and abandonment that can redefine the family structure, either for the better or for the worse. A family does not have to consist of the traditional sense of the nuclear family, but rather a family can consist of friends, step-siblings, step-parents, half siblings, or family members outside the immediate circle of parents and brothers and sisters. Anyone who can come together is a family;

Recent representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) families in mainstream media, exemplified by the long-running sitcom Modern Family, and the 2015 United States Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, may lead some to believe LGBT families are a recent phenomenon. Daniel Winunwe Rivers’ Radical Relations: Lesbian Mothers, Gay Fathers, and Their Children in the United States since World War II brilliantly uncovers the previously untold history of same-sex families.

Gay adoption and parenting are one of the sexual orientation issues affecting the society today. It involves two men who adopt children and raise them as their kids. There are various ways of adopting children, including agency adoption, independent adoptions and the identified adoptions (Golombok et al., 458). After adoption, children are brought up with the parents of the same sex. For gay adoption, it involves both male parents (Goldberg, Jordan, and April, 168). Different challenges are, therefore, faced by such families, including prejudice and discrimination and lack of both maternal and paternal support. Therefore, gay adoption and parenting is an issue that has affected children and family and interventions such as education on how the act has a negative effect on the well-being of the children need to be put in place.

The steadily increasing rate of heterosexual and homosexual couples living together, or cohabitating is changing the landscape of family formation in America. Marriage is no longer the most likely first step to creating a family that it once was. According to Smock and Manning (2010) “From today’s vantage point, it is clear that cohabitation has evolved to dramatically alter the ways that people form romantic relationships, live in them, parent, and marry.” (p. 139) We can no longer consider the nuclear family (a married couple with biological children) to be the definition of what a family is. Many more couples are also having children while living together, prior to marriage, this shows that marriage is quickly losing its place as a requirement for becoming a parent. The immense phenomenon is also not limited to any one ethnic group because “there are very few differences in terms of “who cohabits.” (Smock, Manning 2010 p.

While a popular catchphrase states that “family is a circle of friends that love you”, from a legal standpoint, the word “family” requires definition. Traditionally, a family has been defined as a married heterosexual couple and their children, but as more and more states are legalizing same-sex marriage, new questions arise. Regardless of one's position about whether gay marriage should be legal, it is clear that the definition of family is changing and the legal system will need to address these changes. Whether it is determining who should be a custodial parent, clarifying adoption processes, or implementing legal protections in cases of divorce, family law must grow and change along with the definition of family.

Today, in a world of the “postmodern family” the traditional lines of family structure are blurred. Children may come from diverse types of homes, or a couple, married or not may choose to have no children and consider

Pro- gay activists have a different definition of family. They see family as “a unit of love with one or more consenting adults regardless of gender, creed, or color” (“Gay and Lesbian”). They counter-argue that gay couples can provide the same support, love, and encouragement as heterosexual parents. If anything, gay parenting provides a good example for children who grow up in an environment of love and acceptance for all.

In summation, the definition of family has had a drastic change in society throughout major movements in history. The feminist movement during the 1960s first began changing the feminine roles placed on women. It changed the economy and the state as more women began demanding equality in the work place, this demand of equality transferred over to the household as women demanded a more egalitarian relationship. The LGBTQ movement has broadened who is considered part of a family socially and legally. A family is no longer represented as a patriarchal ideology with the father having the power over the household, but an equal representation of parents without a large acknowledgment on gender. The study of homosexual marriages has presented knew

Western households are a site for ‘traditional’ family values because they espouse rigid gender identities and compulsory heterosexuality (Erhart 2013). Lesbian and queer families are excluded from ‘traditional’ notions of family and reproduction which constitute the ideological locus of domesticity (Hammock 2009; Seidman 1997). Societal attitudes mandate lesbian compulsory childlessness (Parks 1998) because lesbians present a threat to heterosexual family values, and are distinctly non-procreative (Thompson 2002). This rhetoric is a dynamic/static binary of family. Dynamic family forms represent ‘traditional’ families which are White, heterosexual, and functionally procreative (Thompson 2002; Farrow 2014). Unable to fulfill the

In recent years, there has been an increase in same-sex couples applying to adopt children at both infancy and from the foster care system. Although society’s perception of a family normally consists of a mother and father, the times are changing. According to the United States 2000 Census, this societal perception of a normal family, referred to as the “nuclear family”, only represents less than 24%, of households in the U.S. The notion of the “nuclear family” is ever changing in today’s society, and with this change must come a more open view of who can adopt children. It is clear that there are several issues regarding gay and

Families comprise those who have a shared history and a shared future, they encompass the entire emotional system of at least three generations. Since the Relationships with parents, siblings, and other family members go through transitions as they move along the life cycle. A family structure is a way to understand these relationships within the family and learn how members interact with one another, it has a major role in determine our relationships as family members, and shaping our values, beliefs, goals and perceptions toward the society.

Traditionally, a family consisted of heterosexual married parents and their biological children, but now today’s families are continuously changing and becoming more diverse (Shelley-Sireci & Ciano-Boyce, 2002). Homosexuals experience many different transitions and changes in life, some are similar to heterosexuals and others are distinctively different. When lesbians and gay men experience

The role of fatherhood has always been seen as a secondary role to motherhood when it comes to the nurturing and parenting aspect of newborns, children, adolescents, and young adults. Many society norms view fathers as unfit to be the main care taker of children because of the bond and natural instinct that a women have with children. As society advances, the societal norms and gendered positions of masculinity are changing the world’s perspective of homosexual fatherhood. The roles of viewing fatherhood as an important aspect of a children’s development as we examine the shifting changes of fathers being the main caregiver in same sex couples. Although, same sex marriages have been legal in the United States since 2015 but this as not stopped same sex couples being caregivers to children before legalization of same sex marriage. Roadblock to obtain fatherhood has been seen throughout laws and policies, expression of an individuals’ own sexuality, and societal norms. As we examine in our culture fatherhood, we are able to see the positive benefits on children to have a homosexual male couple as fathers.