Out and About: Negotiating the Layers of Being Out in the Process of Disclosure of Lesbian Parenthood.

The article discusses a qualitative research that investigated 20 lesbian parent families in Great Britain who had planned and had their first child together. The study explores the dimensions of coming out of lesbian parents who have children to an openly lesbian relationship. It shows that lesbian parents encounter new situations with a new range of people, settings and networks. Decisions on where and how to come out in the new settings are involved in the negotiating recognition of their parental and familial condition. They also engage in renegotiations of an acceptance of their lesbian identity and parenthood with their family members. Stigma theory is used to examine some of the complexities related to the decisions and negotiations involved in being out as lesbian families.