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Show 45 college of humanities The Gay Family in America project analyzes the attitudes and debates surrounding gay relationships to families from 1945 to 2005. Using primary sources such as letters, journals and personal narratives of gays and lesbians, it explores the difficult climate facing gay households, and the ways gays and lesbians have responded to challenges to their partnerships and parenting. My research has addressed lesbian mother-hood, particularly, the experiences of lesbians of color from 1970 to 1990. Although all lesbian mothers shared some issues regarding their capabilities as parents, problems with the legal system, and difficulties with family reactions to their sexual preference, class and race issues also complicate the story of lesbian motherhood. The concerns and experiences of white-middle class women often differed significantly from those of working-class lesbians and lesbians of color. My research has highlighted both the similarities and differences, and has shown how race and class shaped the lives of lesbian mothers and their children. Whether white or of color, lesbians in America faced many of the same stereotypes from homophobic out-siders. However, working-class women and women of color also had different understandings of the role that families could and should play, that made their own ideals and experiences with parenting different. Letters, diaries, and oral histories indicate that lesbians of color relied more heavily on extended networks of kin to help with child rearing. In contrast, white lesbians often replicated the more isolated nuclear family model, which delegated childcare and support solely to parents. This form of family thus provided less support for both parents and children, and made their lives more stressful. Furthermore, while the separatism popular in white feminist circles in the 1970s applauded the raising of daughters, it was often openly hostile to sons. In this context, white lesbian mothers could easily see how raising strong daughters would benefit society, but had more trouble figuring out how to raise healthy strong sons who could be successful, but not replicate patriarchal values. In contrast, feminists of color rarely saw the value in separat-ism, as they already had important alliances with the men from their racial groups. They had no particular concerns about raising strong sons, because those sons would still be minority men, and thus would not be likely to embrace the inequalities of the white patriarchal system. As a result, lesbian mothers of color had far less ambivalence about parenting, believing, as they did, that strong minority children of either sex could grow up healthy armed with tools to challenge both racism and sexism. Discovering and exposing the histories of lesbians of color and the struggles and successes they experi-enced, makes us aware of the real practical value of cultural difference. This study provides concrete evi-dence of how diversity can strengthen, rather than weaken, the responses of a community to oppression. GAY FAMILY IN AMERICA Kyl Myers (Elizabeth Clement) Department of History University of Utah UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ABSTRACTS Elizabeth Clement Kyl Myers |