Queer Stepfamilies: The Path to Social and Legal Recognition

Queer Stepfamilies explores the social and legal experiences of lesbian, bisexual, and queer stepparent families, offering insight into their complex journeys and the challenges they face in family courts during divorce proceedings and custody cases. It highlights the need for comprehensive policies and laws to protect these families and their children's best interests.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 27 July 2021
Publisher: New York University Press

Lesbian, bisexual, and queer stepparent families face numerous challenges in their social and legal experiences. In her book Queer Stepfamilies, Katie L. Acosta offers a comprehensive exploration of these families' complex realities as they navigate parenting, family-building, and the legal system. Through in-depth interviews, Acosta follows the journeys of over forty families, highlighting the obstacles they encounter in a society that often fails to recognize their existence. Acosta contextualizes the legal realities of LGBTQ stepparent families, examining the actions these parents take to protect their families in the absence of comprehensive policies or laws. Queer Stepfamilies reveals the challenges these families face in family courts during divorce proceedings and custody cases, particularly in cases involving the death of an origin parent. It also highlights their distrust of courts when it comes to acting in their children's best interests. As LGBTQ families continue to make social and legal strides in acceptance and recognition, this important book provides a fresh perspective, broadening our understanding of families in the twenty-first century. Acosta's work offers valuable insights into the experiences of queer stepparents and their families, shedding light on the challenges they face and the ways in which they find ways to make their unconventional families work.

Weight: 414g
Dimension: 151 x 228 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781479800988