Gay Fatherhood: Narratives of Family and Citizenship in America - Softcover

Lewin, Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226476588 ISBN 13: 9780226476582

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2009

Synopsis

Men are often thought to have less interest in parenting than women, and gay men are generally assumed to prefer pleasure over responsibility. The toxic combination of these two stereotypical views has led to a lack of serious attention being paid to the experiences of gay fathers. But the truth is that more and more gay men are setting out to become parents and succeeding—and Gay Fatherhood aims to tell their stories.

Ellen Lewin takes as her focus people who undertake the difficult process of becoming fathers as gay men, rather than having become fathers while married to women. These men face unique challenges in their quest for fatherhood, negotiating specific bureaucratic and financial conditions as they pursue adoption or surrogacy and juggling questions about their future child’s race, age, sex, and health. Gay Fatherhood chronicles the lives of these men, exploring how they cope with political attacks from both the "family values" right and the "radical queer" left—while also shedding light on the evolving meanings of family in twenty-first-century America.

About this title

About the Author:

Ellen Lewin is professor of anthropology and of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies at the University of Iowa.

Review:

"Gay Fatherhood is doubly a magnificent achievement: it not only offers an exemplary investigation into the lived experience of gay parenting, but also shows how the struggles and triumphs of these gay men and their children can act as a kind of lens into how American cultures more broadly understand family, love, responsibility, and belonging." - Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine"

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0226476588
• ISBN 13: 9780226476582
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248