Lesbian Step Families: An Ethnography of Love explores five lesbian step families’definitions of the step parent role and how they accomplish parenting tasks, cope with homophobia, and define and interpret their experiences. An intensive feminist qualitative study, the book offers guidelines for counselors and lesbian step families for creating healthy, functioning family structures and environments. It is the first book to concentrate exclusively on lesbian step families rather than on le...

A resounding testament to individuality and the power of family in all forms from the young man who “lit up the Internet” (Ellen DeGeneres)On January 31, 2011, Zach Wahls addressed the Iowa House Judiciary Committee in a public forum regarding full marriage equality. The nineteen-year-old son of a same-sex couple, Wahls proudly proclaimed, “The sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character.” Hours later, his speech was posted o...

From Adoptive Families magazine, the country’s leading resource on adoption, this warm, authoritative book is full of practical, realistic advice from leading attorneys, doctors, social workers, and psychologists, as well as honest, intimate stories from real parents and children. You Can Adopt answers every question–even the ones you’re afraid to ask:• When should I shift from fertility treatment to adoption?• How do I talk to my spouse about adopt...

With 60,000 children in the care system and national child protection scandals hitting the headlines at an alarming rate, adoption and fostering are typical issues. It can be hard for prospective adopters and foster carers to get comprehensive, no-nonsense advice and guidance.This book is here to help. Packed with practical advice and the latest information, it takes you through the entire process: from making initial enquiries and starting an application, to the approval process a...

The first comprehensive book that offers invaluable step-by-step advice for families with donor-conceived children.Wendy Kramer, founder and director of the Donor Sibling Registry, and Naomi Cahn, family and reproductive law professor, have compiled a comprehensive and thorough guide for the growing community of families with donor-conceived children. Kramer and Cahn believe that all donor-conceived children’s desire to know their genetic family must be honored, an...

Effective therapeutic self-help techniques for a straight mate’s recoveryOne of the most traumatic events that can happen in a marriage is discovering your mate is gay. When Your Spouse Comes Out: A Straight Mate’s Recovery Manual is a comprehensive exploration of the trauma that provides practical steps that successful individuals have taken to keep this event from ruining their future. This guide offers solid therapeutic techniques for self-help and presents poignant tru...

Full of wonderful stories that give insight into a wide variety of adoption issues, now revised in light of recent developments, The Family of Adoption is a powerful argument for the right kind of openness in adoption. Joyce Maguire Pavao uses her thirty years of experience as a family and adoption therapist to explain to adoptive parents, birthparents, adult adopted people, and extended family, as well as to those who work with children professionally the developmental stages and...

Use new knowledge of the LGBT culture to ably counsel same-sex couples!Relationship Therapy with Same-Sex Couples provides psychologists, therapists, social workers, and counselors with an overview of the array of treatment issues they may face when working with couples from the LGBT community. This book highlights the experiences of therapists who have encountered concerns particular to LGBT clientsespecially those in intimate relationships. This intriguing resource covers clinica...

While the topic of gay marriage and families continues to be popular in the media, few scholarly works focus on gay men with children. Based on ten years of fieldwork among gay families living in the rural, suburban, and urban area of the eastern United States, Gay Fathers, Their Children, and the Making of Kinship presents a beautifully written and meticulously argued ethnography of gay men and the families they have formed.In a culture that places a premium on biology as the foun...

In North America, more and more families are adding members through adoption. And there are more ways to adopt and kinds of adoption than ever. This quick start resource will help prospective parents consider key emotional and spiritual issues up front... before they plunge into the near overwhelming mass of details and start to run into roadblocks, even dead ends. Jo Robbins, an adoption educator and mentor, and an adoptive mom herself brings her experience and knowledge to address unspok...

The discovery that one’s husband is gay or bisexual is a surprise for which most women are totally unprepared. With no guidelines and few professionals able to provide adequate help, both partners, but especially the wives, are apt to feel enormous isolation and confusion. When Husbands Come Out of the Closet, based on the results of a landmark study and years of clinical experience, is a poignant and compassionate look at the conflicting emotions experienced by women who learn of their hu...

If You are Thinking of Becoming a Gay Dad, or if You are Already a Gay Dad ─ This Book is for You!Are you ready to have kids? More and more gay men are turning to adoption and surrogacy to start their own families. An estimated two million American LBGTQ people would like to adopt and an estimated 65,000 adopted children are living with a gay parent. In 2016, The Chicago Tribune reported that 10 to 20 percent of donor eggs went to gay men expandi...