The social construction of family in the gay and lesbian community.

Sociologists recognize the diversity of families in contemporary American society. Lesbian and gay 'families of choice' are a cultural category of family structures that has been largely understudied. I propose that studying 'families of choice' can expand and transform sociological discussions of family transitions and diversification and of family as a site of doing gender and sexuality. In addition, the study of lesbian and gay 'families of choice' highlights the role of sexuality in the study of gender and power. This paper asks how family is constructed in the gay and lesbian community through the performance of gender and sexuality. Data for this study consist of personal narratives and systematic accounts of chosen families as they appear in books and articles that were written primarily for gay and lesbian audiences. I consider these intercommunity written texts as forms of distribution of community knowledge. The main argument of this paper is that the stories that gay men and lesbians tell in the data are drawn from a historically located, structurally restrained cultural 'tool kit' and use gender and sexuality to construct family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]