Love Makes a Family: Portraits of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Parents and Their Families

by Gigi Kaeser (Photographer), Peggy Gillespie (Editor), Kath Weston (Introduction)

This handsome volume combines interviews and photographs to document the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered parents and their children. It allows all of the family members to speak candidly about their lives, their relationships, and the ways in which they have dealt with the pressures of homophobia.Included in the book are people from a diverse array of racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds, representing a wide range of family structures. Together, they provide clear evidence that family roles and responsibilities need not be based on gender, and that children thrive in an atmosphere in which understanding, respect, and love transcend the prejudices of the day.

Genres: Queer, Parenting, Nonfiction, LGBT, Photography

280 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1999

Reviews

[Mary Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and inspirational

[Danni Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book at the library and took it home thinking I might read a story or two from it at a time, making my way slowly through this gorgeous compilation of photographs and interviews. I ended up devouring the whole thing in one night, utterly transfixed by the power of the images and stories. Each piece portrays a family with at least one LGBT parent and their child(ren), with pictures illustrating their life together and words telling their stories in their own voices. The book was put together in the late '90s, so the stories depict a particular point in time in LGBT history which is different from today in many ways, and incredibly similar to today in many ways as well. Reading this book was a deeply emotional experience! I think it would be a lovely and profound reading experience for parents to share with their children.

I particularly appreciated that the book included families with different configurations of adults than just two-parent families, and represented the relationships of these adults to each other exactly as the families identified them. I would have liked to have seen more transgender and nonbinary people in this book, particularly transfeminine people.