Sie befinden Sich nicht im Netzwerk der Universität Paderborn. Der Zugriff auf elektronische Ressourcen ist gegebenenfalls nur via VPN oder Shibboleth (DFN-AAI) möglich. mehr Informationen...
“In the Best Interests of the Child”: Lesbian and Gay Parenting Custody Cases, 1967–1985
Ist Teil von
Journal of social history, 2010-06, Vol.43 (4), p.917-943
Ort / Verlag
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Erscheinungsjahr
2010
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Oxford Journals 2020 Humanities
Beschreibungen/Notizen
This article offer a history of lesbian and gay parenting custody case from 1967 to 1985. Using court transcripts, newspaper articles, and oral histories with key participants, it documents the struggle over definitions of the family that emerged in the gay and lesbian liberation era as women and men left previous heterosexual relationships and were forced to fight for custody or visitation of their children. These legal battles marked the first generation of lesbian and gay parents to openly fight for their parental rights through the judicial system. Even in states where same-sex orientation did not automatically render them unfit parents in the eyes of the law, lesbian mothers and gay fathers faced an entrenched debate over what was in "the best interests of the child." Gradually, with the help of sympathetic expert witnesses and lesbian mother and gay father advocacy groups, they challenged the widespread cultural assumption that homosexuality and parenting were antithetical. In doing so, they paved the way for the current focus on domestic/parental rights in the modern Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) freedom struggle.