CALL FOR PAPERS
Special Issue: Journal of GLBT Family Studies
Putting families of origin into the queer picture
Exploring experiences and representations by parents, siblings and other family members of
LGBT persons.
Guest Editors: Chiara Bertone, University of East Piedmont, Italy
Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Deakin University, Australia
Relations with families of origin remain an underexplored dimension of GLBT family
life. What is largely missing is, in particular, research on the perspectives of the families of
origin themselves: parents, but also siblings, grandparents and other members of extended
families. There is also a need for interdisciplinary dialogue on these issues, since research has
mainly been developed in the field of psychology, with the aim of providing tools to promote
family acceptance and preventing lesbian, gay and transgender youth distress. Fewer studies
have explored the connections between family responses and social change, looking at the
intertwined processes of the constructions and positioning of gender, homosexuality and
heterosexuality in the redefinition of family relations following disclosure. This perspective
seems very productive, both for its empirical findings and for the possibilities that it opens for
theoretical development in the understanding of persistence and change in heteronormativities
and sexual citizenship, building a bridge with debates about broader transformations of intimacy.
Likewise, there is little published research about the experiences of support and affirmation for
families of GLBT individuals within public, health, educational and voluntary sectors.
Also of interest is that, if we look beyond US and UK publications, we find that research
has actually been carried out in many countries, and often in languages other than English.
Several of these studies come from areas like Southern Europe, where intergenerational ties are
experienced by families and constructed by governmental, health and educational policies as of
higher significance and strength, indeed privileged over the needs of the GLBT individual family
member, than in some other cultural and national settings. To unearth this broader international
body of research, the Journal of GLBT Family Studies is featuring a special issue, providing the
space for a much needed comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and non-exclusively Western
overview of research on the families of origin of LGBT subjects.
The editors are looking for manuscripts from a range of social science disciplines. All
submissions will be given due consideration.
Papers based on empirical research directly
involving family members are strongly encouraged.
The specific focus of submitted papers may include, but is not limited to:
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What happens when heteronormative assumptions are challenged? How do parents,
siblings and other family members negotiate the coming out of a family member?
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Families of origin of transgender persons negotiating medical and social processes of
gender redefinition
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Family practices in everyday life: negotiations on meanings and rules.
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Families of origin negotiating their member’s coming out to family networks and
community.
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Experiences of siblings of GLBT persons.
-
Mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters: gender differences in the redefinition of family
relations following disclosure.
-
Diversity among families across class and ethnicity and diverse international settings.
-
Becoming grandparents: dealing with their LGBT child’s reproductive choices and
building relations with grandchildren.
-
Negotiations around gay and lesbian people’s attendance at family rituals.
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Family members involved in self-help organisations and in the LGBT movement.
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Families of origin addressing and understanding the choices of gay men and lesbians in
relation to marriage and other forms of institutional recognition.
-
Family members’ attitudes towards sexual citizenship rights.
-
Services dealing with the families of origin of LGBT persons and the experience of their
users.
Manuscript Specifications:

General style, citations, and references should follow the APA Publication Manual, Fifth
Edition

30 pages total, including references

Times New Roman 12 pt font, double-spacing

Page margins 1” all around

Electronic submission only -- sent to chiara.bertone@sp.unipmn.it and maria.pallottachiarolli@deakin.edu.au
If you are interested in submitting a paper for review, please submit a 200-250 word abstract to
Chiara Bertone at chiara.bertone@sp.unipmn.it by May 1, 2012. All submissions must be
electronic.

For additional information, please contact Chiara Bertone at chiara.bertone@sp.unipmn.it
or Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli at maria.pallotta-chiarolli@deakin.edu.au, or Fiona Tasker at
f.tasker@bbk.ac.uk