Research

New Title: Legalizing LGBT Families: How the Law Shapes Parenthood.                                                                                                                by Amanda K. Baumle and D’Lane R. Compton

Fall 2014 Update                                                                                                          Our book project is now complete and will be accepted for publication with the NYU Press in the Fall 2015. We are very excited about the way the book came together, and can’t wait to see our participants’ stories in print!

Most recently we have sent out emails to those of you that contributed to the project. At the time of our interview, we informed you that we would provide you with the opportunity to review portions of the manuscript where you are quoted. However, a number of emails came back as undeliverable or we manged to some how lose touch with you. If this is the case and you are following our blog for updates and you would  like to see the excerpts from your interview that were used in the manuscript prior to publication, please let us know as soon as possible by emailing us at dcompton@uno.edu.

—

2014 Spring Update                                                                                                We are excited to announce that we have finished a full complete draft of our book manuscript. We have now moved to the fine-tuning stage and will soon be contacting participants to get their feedback on our work. Additionally, we will be working on all the little details that go along with publishing a book including our index, formatting, cover art and so on…for now we are still under construction but the end is in sight. Back to work we go…

Fall 2013 Update

We have officially completed the data collection phase of this project and are hard at work on writing up our findings. Thank you to all that contributed. We can’t wait to share the completed work with you. 

But for now back to the type, type, typ-ing….

—

Legislating Gay and Lesbian Families: How the Law Affects Parenthood Decisions for Queer Parents                     by Amanda K. Baumle and D’Lane R. Compton

This project examines whether and how formal law plays a role in the family decisions of gay men and lesbians. In the past five years, media and public attention have been captured by the introduction of a spate of proposed and enacted laws designed to curtail the ability of gay men and lesbians to raise children in their homes. These laws range from direct prohibitions on gay and lesbian adoption, to laws indirectly affecting gay men and lesbians via marriage requirements for adoption or medically assisted conception. Faced with legal animus or outright legal prohibitions on adoption, fostering, or surrogacy, many would expect that gay men and lesbians would be deterred from family formation. Conversely, those living in states which prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation might be expected to form families more readily. However, according to the 2000 and 2010 census data, it appears that most children in same-sex households live in states that are unfriendly to gay families. In Legislating Gay and Lesbian Families, we will be analyzing the stories of approximately 150-200 LGBTQ parents regarding the ways in which the law affects – or fails to affect – their decisions to become a parent, the method of becoming a parent, and their everyday parenting decisions.

—

RESEARCH LOG

Feb 1, 2012

We have now completed interviews with approximately 100 LGBTQ parents, located in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, California, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, D.C. We are looking for additional interviews to be scheduled in California (Southern) in March, and are scheduling a trip to Utah this spring.  Please contact us if you are interested in being a part of our study.  This summer we hope to move more into Middle America.

April 30th, 2012

California

California was sunny and great.  However, I wish we had more interviews and at least one male voice from CA. It’s surprising how few people have come forward to be interviewed in CA. We have made two separate trips–one to the Bay Area and one to San Diego.  I guess people think there are plenty of others that will step forward. That or they have, paraphrasing a MA participant, been having these conversations for years and are all talked out. I still believe in you CA, but I think we will also concentrate on the entire Western seaboard just in case.  Doesn’t Washington have some big celebrations coming June 7th?  I think they do…

—

End of Spring Update

May 15th, 2012

This Spring got quite hectic there for a bit. However, now that classes are over, I am ready to give my my full attention to this project and collecting as many interviews as possible this summer.  I am happy to report that we have had many great interactions with folks who are excited about this project–in helping to contribute and in wanting to read the end product. The research partner and  I were even interviewed as experts for a documentary on gay Texas families.  (I will post more about this developing project as I learn more.) Further, we have received some very positive feedback from our colleagues across the nation.  Since my last post in February we spent time at various talks and conferences talking about this project and networking. We also wrote-up a couple chapters to send to interested academic presses for review.  I am confident we will have a GREAT press by the end of summer…now I feel like I shouldn’t have written that as to not jinx us, however, it is my true feeling. Needless to say, we are excited and ready to undertake our last summer of data collection for this project.

—

Summer News

We are happy to announce that will commence more interviewing over the next two months.  We are also in talks with two very great presses for the book.  One press has even sent out our initial chapters for review…and they came back very positive.  We look forward to moving ahead on this project.  Most immediately, we will be looking for more parents to interview.  We are especially interested in parents that live in the Mid-west and on the Pacific Coast.  Also, we are always in need of more male voices.  Please share the word.  We are willing to travel for face-to-face interviews if we can get a number of people in one place.

July, 2012

ALABAMA!!  Subjects needed for our LGBT/Queer Parenting Study This July!!! 

We are looking for participants to be interviewed in Alabama this July.  If you or someone you know is interested please contact me, D’Lane Compton, via email at dcompton@uno.edu

Rio Grande Valley, TX: Subjects needed for our LGBT/Queer Parenting Study 

We are looking for participants to be interviewed in the Rio Grande Valley area between July 27th-29th.  If you or someone you know is interested please contact me, D’Lane Compton, via email at dcompton@uno.edu

July 27th, 2012

We are happy to announce that NYU Press is interested in our manuscript for this project and has offered us a contract.  We are accepting and are most excited about this opportunity.

August,  2012

August was a wonderful month for us.  Amanda and I had a great time at ASA and we were able to learn about many more studies of sexuality that are currently being conducted by a diversity of scholars.  Most, excitedly we were able to meet with our editor face-to-face.  We are happy to announce that NYU is very excited about our project and we cant wait to start writing once our data collection is completed. Until then, we still have 2 trips planned for the Fall and one over Winter Break.  See you soon!

October, 2012

Thank you, Michigan!!

Greater Detroit-Ann Arbor, Michigan area: Subjects needed for our LGBT/Queer Parenting Study This October!!! 

We are looking for participants to be interviewed in the Greater Detroit-Ann Arbor Area this October 11th-14th.  If you or someone you know is interested please contact me, D’Lane Compton, via email at dcompton@uno.edu