Critical Differentials: Querying the Incongruities within Research on Lesbian Parent Families

Contemporary research on ‘lesbian families’ tends to portray them as progressive examples of non-nuclear parenting that challenge traditional kinship formation. In contrast my data revealed that, in many instances, it remains the ‘birth mother’ who is figuratively and literally left ‘holding the baby’, and traditional understandings and experiences of family persist. This article calls into question the representativeness of radical models and addresses the differences between research findings on lesbian parent families. Rather than contest the accuracy of others’ research, I argue that the reasons for differences between analyses can be found in the research process. Thus I query the epistemological and methodological foundations of radical research into lesbian parent families.