Familiar Perversions ― The Racial, Sexual, and Economic Politics of Lgbt Families

Over the past two decades, same-sex couples raising children have become more visible within U.S. political and popular culture. The family equality movement has propagated images of well-dressed, well-mannered, and well-off two-parent LGBT families. Yet that depiction of same-sex parents as model citizens has come at a time of growing economic inequality, racial inequality, and nationalism. 

Familiar Perversions evaluates the many successes of the family equality movement, while asking important questions about its place within neoliberalism, racial inequality, and the policing of sexual cultures. Liz Montegary takes us on a journey that includes not only the activist rallies and courtrooms where landmark decisions about gay parenting were made, but also the gay resort towns and cruise ships where we can observe the everyday politics of LGBT family life. Through its sustained historical analysis, this book lays a critical groundwork for imagining a queer family movement that can support and strengthen the diverse networks of kinship, intimacy, and care on which people depend. 

LIZ MONTEGARY is an assistant professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Stony Brook University in New York. She is the coeditor of Mobile Desires: The Politics and Erotics of Mobility Justice.