Becoming parent: lesbians, gay men and family

Abstract

Damien invites us to find different ways of responding to myths about lesbian and gay parenting. Damien shows us how myths, and psychologists' responses to them, function to uphold dominant values about parenting and families. He provides us with tools to take these myths apart and challenge the fears that drive many public (and private) discussions about our parenting. In this book, most importantly, he offers a language with which to change the conversation about lesbian and gay parenting. Damien, like most psychologists who write about and research lesbian and gay parenting, is concerned with creating a better world, but he asks us to pause and reflect on the strategies we use to bring about a better world and to question what exactly that world might look like. Clearly there are still many lesbians and gay men whose fitness to parent is called into question and some are likely to be helped by interventions that aim to counter myths and misconceptions about lesbian and gay parenting.