This ground-breaking collection of writing brings vital and refreshing insights into current discussions about queer parenting. The essays blend narrative and academic voices from Canada, the United States, England and Australia. The contributors are parents, prospective parents, writers, academics, lawyers, activists, health care professionals and - most significantly - queer spawn, the children of LGBTQ parents. The themes represented in these 40 essays include butches raising sons; queer youth as parents; trans experience in fertility clinics; legal and historical reflections; bisexuality and adoption; race relations in the family; heteronormativity in queer family kids' books; class issues within families; dealing with infertility; polyamory and parenting; discussions with sperm donors, single moms, gay dads; developments in reproductive technologies; rural and urban experience; and reflections on the meanings of biology and of "queer" parenting.
Rachel Epstein has been a queer parenting activist, educator, and researcher for close to twenty years and coordinates the LGBTQ Parenting Network at the Sherbourne Health Centre in Toronto, Ontario. She has published on a wide range of queer parenting issues, including assisted human reproduction, queer spawn in schools, butch pregnancy, and the tensions between queer sexuality, radicalism, and parenting. Rachel is the 2008 winner of the Steinert Ferreiro Award (Community One Foundation), recognizing her leadership and pivotal contributions towards the support, recognition, and inclusion of queer parents and their children in Canada.
Part 1: Red Rock Baby Candy: Beginnings ... The Squeaky Animal Hat Club: A Queer Spawn Comes Out Melissa Hart Go On, You Choose: The Ethics of Getting Pregnant by Nagging Emma Donoghue Daddies & Papas 2B: The Evolution of Possibilities Interview with Chris Veldhoven & Thom Vernon Boldly Going Where Few Men Have Gone Before: One Trans Man's Experience Syrus Marcus Ware Red Rock Baby Candy: Infertile Homosexual Speaks! Shira Spector The Making and Unmaking of Biological Ties in Gay and Lesbian Families Suzanne Pelka Extra Love: An Open Adoption Story Interview with Ann-Marie MacDonald Part 2: From Queer to Paternity: Queering the Family Tree The Gift of Life: Sperm Donors/Donor Dads - Then and Now Groupinterview with sperm donors/donor dads My Co-world and Welcome To It: Adventures in Non-Conjugal Parenting Aviva Rubin To Bi or Not To Bi: Bisexuality and Disclosure in the Adoption System Allison Eadie et al The Revolutionary Artist Mom and Baby League: Putting Young Queer Parents on the Map Rebecca Trotzky-Sirr Beyond Thomas Beatie: Trans Men and the New Parenthood Maura Ryan From Queer to Paternity: A Gay Man's Uncharted Voyage into Co-Parenting Derek P. Scott Hip Queer Single Mamas: A Community Group interview with single moms group Beyond Normalization: An Analysis of Heteronormativity in Children's Picture Books Anika Stafford Part 3: Handing Out Cigars: History, Visibility and Social Change Politics of the Heart: Recognition of Homoparental Families in Quebec Nancy Nicol Handing Out Cigars: Outlaw Moms No More Lois Fine Two Pathways to a Revolution: The Difference that Context Makes in Canad and the U.S. David Rayside Mommies in Critical Care Diane Flacks Reading, Writing and Resilience: Queer Spawn Speak Out About School Rachel Epstein et al. A Queer Spawn Manifesto: Empowerment and Recognition Jamie K. Evans Part 4: All Our Roots Need Rain: Parenting dilemmas in the day-to-day Little White Children: Notes from a Chicana Dyke Dad Karleen Pendleton-Jimenez The Move Cindy Holmes & Anne Fleming All Our Roots Need Rain: Queer Parenting from the Sri Lankan Diaspora N. Gitanjali Lena Race Relations in the Family: On Being a Transracial Spawn of White Queer Parents Tobi Hill-Meyer Lost: The Unthinkable Cost of Love Serena Patterson Radical Fairies and Lesbian Avengers: Reflections from a Gay Dad and His Dyke Daughter Julie Mooney-Somers & Eamon Somers This Hyphenated Mothering Thing Makeda Silvera Part 5: Houses Full of Love: What we offer our children Dear Who-Knows-Who: An Expectant Mother's Parenting Intentions Elizabeth Ruth In the Best Interests of the Child: The Awful Truth about Queer-Raised Kids christina starr Is Queer Parenting Possible? Shelley M. Park Sex and the Formerly Single Mom Jaime Grant In Defence of ""Traditional"" Families JoannaRadbord Houses Full of Love: Bringing up Children in Polyamorous Relationships Alessandra (Alex) Iantaffi Who's Your Daddy?: Reflections on Masculinity in Butch-Parented SonsLaurie Bell I Am My Father's Son Jonathan Feakins Contributors' Notes Resources
Postmodern indeed. As a single Black lesbian mother, I assumed that a resource like this wouldn't yet exist. On searching, I discovered a literary road map to queer parenting and family that is current, diverse and mini-encyclopedic in its breadth. Reading this work made me feel as though I had added to my family of choice."" - Ruth Cameron, The Feminist Review
