Gay Dads

“Abbie Goldberg’s book is yet another example of her rigorous and insightful research on LGB families. Writing a book that is both accessible and theoretically informed, Goldberg describes the complexity of gay men’s fathering as experienced through everyday decision making and social organization. Further, she argues against easy categorization of gay fathers as resisters or accommodators, and instead explains their decisions and experiences by showing how even the most prosaic moments (like people’s reactions to two fathers passing their child back and forth in a restaurant) oblige gay fathers to negotiate ideologies and opportunity structures in complicated ways. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I highly recommend it to family researchers and graduate students, as well as adoption workers and clinicians. Gay men and lesbians considering parenthood would find it helpful, as would heterosexual men and women seeking to resist heteronormativity in their own lives. Really, anyone who wants to learn more about families should read this book.” Ramona Faith Oswald,Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign “Gay Dads is lucid, insightful study of the transition to parenthood among the first generation of gay male couples able to choose to adopt children and form nuclear families rather than to create queer ‘families of choice.’ Prominent family scholar Abby Goldberg sensitively explores what happens to family practice, politics and theory now that these former family outlaws have begun to acquire in-laws.” Judith Stacey, author of Unhitched: Love, Marriage and Family Values from West Hollywood to Western China “The transition to parenthood is filled with hopes, desires, unexpected twists and turns, and a myriad of emotions. Although typically a joyful experience, it can also be stressful, challenging parents in ways they did not anticipate. This is especially true for families headed by individuals or couples who do not conform to heteronormative models of parenting. In her new book, Abbie Goldberg, a leading developmental scholar on parenting by sexual minority adults, provides an informative authoritative, and supportive account of the experiences of gay men becoming fathers. Through in depth interviews, qualitative analyses, and useful case examples, Dr. Goldberg captures, in a rich and compelling manner, the way in which these men (re)define gender, parenting, and family life for themselves and others. This timely and important book will have significant impact across diverse areas of scholarship and will provide policymakers with thought provoking ideas about the meaning of parenthood and family.” David Brodzinsky, Professor Emeritus of Developmental and Clinical Psychology, Rutgers University

Abbie E. Goldberg is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University (Worcester, MA), and senior research fellow at the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute (Newton, MA). She is the author of Lesbian and Gay Parents and their Children: Research on the Family Life Cycle and co-editor of LGBT-Parent Families: Innovations in Research and Implications for Practice.