Assignment: Primary Perspectives In Social Psychology

Another difficulty lies in the fear that gay fathers and lesbian mothers have regarding custody concerns should they disclose their sexual orientation (Patterson, 2000). It is clear that researchers may need to use alternative and creative sampling procedures to investigate the experience of gay and lesbian parents and their children within the contexts of eth- nic, racial, religious, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity. It will be important to know how these parents and children manage the multiple identities that they experience in a vari- ety of contexts.

Another important limit to the current research is the lack of attention to diversity within gay and lesbian families. The research has been primarily conducted with lesbian mothers and their children conceived through heterosexual relation- ships or via DI; custodial and noncustodial gay fathers have received relatively little attention. Few studies have explored lesbian and gay parents fostering and adopting children from this and other countries and the complex multicultural issues that may arise for these families in today’s society. In addi- tion, there appears to be no literature investigating the family dynamics associated with lesbian couples and gay male cou- ples having children together via DI or gay male couples and a single lesbian mother or lesbian couples and a single gay father.