Moreover, when simultaneously considering parent-reported socialization, higher child-reported LGBT family socialization statistically predicted greater social competence. Although no parent-reported socialization practices were associated with children’s understanding of adoption, child-reported LGBT family socialization was correlated with greater understanding. Higher racial/cultural socialization was associated with higher LGBT family socialization the latter was also associated with higher adoptive communicative openness. Parents in transracial (versus same-race) adoptive families reported higher racial/cultural socialization and lower adoptive communicative openness. No socialization practices differed as functions of child sex or parental sexual orientation. We investigated associations among three parent socialization practices (racial/cultural socialization, adoptive communicative openness, LGBT family socialization) and related child outcomes (social competence, understanding of adoption) among 96 lesbian, gay, and heterosexual adoptive parent families with school-age children (Mage = 8 years).
These findings reveal how gay fathered families can broaden our definition of family and change the institutions of the family and education by confronting heteronormative binaries that surround gender, sexuality, and family. They also queered education by urging schools to have books and other media normalizing and explaining families outside of the heteronormative SNAF and by challenging how the SNAF is used to organize routine school events. Results show that fathers queered the family by openly and honestly addressing family, friends, and strangers that questioned or commented on their families. Using interviews with 37 gay fathers and integrating queer theory as a theoretical tool, this study examines these experiences. Little research has directly analyzed the ways in which gay fathered families navigate experiences stemming from the fact that their family type stands out and challenges heteronormative family ideologies and the culturally dominant “Standard North American Family” or SNAF model. Two-father families are becoming more visible in research on sexual minority parenting and gradually transforming the conceptualization of parenting in family research. It was found that research on gay fatherhood appears to be more heterogeneous than on lesbian motherhood, perhaps because of the variety of pathways to parenthood (via co-parenting, adoption, fostering, or surrogacy). Nine themes were identified in the studies reviewed: (1) Pathways to fatherhood (2) Motivations for fatherhood (3) Parenting experiences and childrearing (4) Family life and relationship quality (5) Gender and father identities and gender-role orientation (6) Disclosure of sexual identity (7) Social climate (8) Father's psychosocial adjustment and (9) Children's psychosocial adjustment. More than half of the studies were published after 2011 and the overwhelming majority were conducted in the United States. A total of 63 studies, spanning from 1979 to 2016, were collected. A comprehensive search of relevant literature using electronic databases and reference lists for articles published until December 2016 was conducted. The purpose of the present systematic and critical review was to assess the findings and to identify the gaps in the literature concerning gay and bisexual fathers.