White Lesbian Couples Adopting Racial/Ethnic Minority Children
Article by: Hannah Richardson and Abbie Goldberg
Blog by: Abby Haak
The amount of white parents adopting racial or ethnic
minority children has increased in the United States, partly because of the
large amount of racial/ethnic minority children who need to be adopted
(Richardson and Goldberg, 2010). Research suggests that compared to
heterosexual couples, lesbian couples are more open to adopting a child who is
of a different race than they are. Society often thinks that lesbian mother
families are not acceptable because they do not have a male parent, even though
research has shown that lesbian parents provide loving, stable homes for their
children.
Lesbian couples who adopt racial/ethnic minority children
face multiple stigmas based on belonging to a sexual minority identity, being
adoptive families, and having a multiracial family. These stigmas are what
Richardson and Goldberg (2010) wanted to research.
Richardson and Goldberg (2010) also wanted to look into the
idea of White parents who are “color-blind”.
In this sense, being color-blind means that a parent believes that race won’t
be a problem for their kids, which could lead to these parents overlooking
challenges that their kids COULD face because of their race. Richardson and
Goldberg (2010) interviewed 20 lesbian couples who identified as White and who
had adopted children who were ethnic/racial minorities. The lesbians were
financially secure, well educated, and had never adopted before. If you are interested in reading a similar
study, click this link!
The researchers of this study found that the majority of the
lesbian parents assumed that they would face some discrimination because of
their sexual identities and their adoptive children. Many of the women were afraid that their
children would face discrimination in schools or in their communities, not only
because of their minority race/ethnicity, but also because of the sexual
identity of their mothers. An interesting finding of this study was that some
of the mothers used their White Privilege to their advantage (that is, they
weren’t color-blind and they acknowledged differences in race).
Three months after adoption, the same lesbian couples were
interviewed again. This time, the parents indicated that they HAD indeed
experienced some form of discrimination, noting that they were often more
discriminated against because they had children of a different race, and less
because of their sexual identities. Despite these difficulties, most of the
women also indicated that they had found support within their communities. By acknowledging
their multiple identities, these families were able to “raise their children
with a greater awareness and openness to difference” (Richardson and Goldberg,
2010, p. 351).
The article, “The Intersection of Multiple Minority Identities: Perspectives of White Lesbian Couples Adopting Racial/Ethnic Minority Children” explore and recognize the stigma associated with multiracial, sexual orientation and adaptive status (341). The authors showed the different connections that shape lesbian couples. Lesbian parents face different challenges when adopting children from minority race. Lesbian parents also have to face multiracial and multiple discriminations. In this situation parents have to make choices to teach their children to learn to deal with the racism and discrimination in early age. The researchers explained intersections between privilege and dominant cultures in the society (346). The way society takes lesbian couples is still conservative. In traditional society same sex couple is not acceptable.
ReplyDeleteThe researchers did not explain gender of children. I was expecting researchers will examine gender differences and different experience of the girl/ boy child. The minority children face cultural and racial discrimination even they are raise by white privilege parents. There are high chances for the girls to be discriminated at all levels than the boys. Even in the case of minority children adopted by white lesbian couples. The researchers also address “resilience” to discrimination in white lesbian couples. What about women of color, different race and cultural backgrounds? Lesbian women of color couples are vulnerable, face challenges and discrimination more than privilege lesbian couples.
"The Intersection of Multiple Minority Identities: Perspectives of White Lesbian Couples Adopting Racial/Ethnic Minority Children" by Richardson and Goldberg raises several issues pertinent to families today. First, the authors discuss the intersecting stigma's facing families adopting racial/minority children and how those stigmas increase for lesbian couples adopting racial/minority children. The authors found that "multiracial lesbian parent families may have to contend with multiple forms of stigma" when adopting children (341). In addition, multiracial adoptive families face different emotional issues once the child ages such as "feelings of sadness, loss, and sense of difference" (341). Finally, the authors discuss how "lesbian/gay parent families are different" from other families, that they "face marginalization and lack of privilege due to their sexual orientation," and "do not receive many of the traditional forms of recognition (e.g., marriage) that are typically awarded to families" (342). These, as well as other outlined challenges, highlights how important this issue is and how the entire family unit is affected by stigmas, challenges, and choices that do not fit inside the very narrow definition of "family."
ReplyDeleteThe questions that I had in regard to limitations to this study were discussed in the discussion portion of the text. Items such as the participant poll, sample size, analyzation of data, and modes of report were all discussed as limitations. This was very interesting and contextualized the results nicely. Finally, this discussion allows for expansion of research focusing on white lesbian families with lower education background, white lesbian families with lower income status, or other variables left out of the discussion of this article because of the participant results.
Finally, this article made me think of the film "Off and Running." If you haven't seen this documentary, you should check it out! It addresses some of these ideas of lesbian parents adopting multiracial/minority children through a documentary of one particular family. I believe it is still on Netflix, but here's the trailer:
http://youtu.be/st8RwfdBxyk