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Home Fronts |
List Price: $12.95
Your Price: $12.95 |
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Reviews |
Description:
In her introduction to this timely and brave collection of essays, Jess Wells argues that queer parenting is well enough established that we can stand back as a community and offer a little constructive self-criticism. "Only after we secure a minimal amount of social stature," writes Wells, "are we able to realize that we've been painting a good face on our parenting and refusing to discuss our own mistakes because we've had to ward off the cultural assumption that we are all bad parents." The main controversy seems to be the rights and feelings of the nonbiological mother in a lesbian family. In the opening essay, "The Essential Outsider," Aimee Gelnaw describes the pain of exclusion from the principal mother-child bond, especially while a baby is still breast-feeding. In her interview with Kate Kendell, director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Sarah Schulman talks about that scourge of gay parenting, the biological mom who attempts to deny custody or visitation of a child to the nonbiological mom. One of these "lesbian villains" speaks out as well, under an assumed name, recounting her horror story of an abusive, manipulative partner to explain why she has denied her former partner access to their child. And at the close of the volume, Rachel Pepper discloses her reluctance to consider her partner a "mother" to her daughter Frances, and her resistance to second-parent adoption. Other issues include biracial families, transracial adoption, and the savage prejudices against transgendered parents. This bracing book should be read by every gay or lesbian parent (or those considering parenting), as well as the health care workers and therapists who counsel them. --Regina Marler
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