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Abstract ObjectiveThis study documents the importance of grandparents for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) Latinx youth and how cisnormativity shapes these relationship dynamics. BackgroundMost research on LGBTQ+ youth's family relations centers on the parent–child relationship. Grandparents are important for racially marginalized families, particularly Latinx families. Additionally, Latinx LGBTQ+ youth are impacted by precarious familismo—the disparate experiences with family members in which their gender and sexuality are simultaneously accepted and rejected. MethodThe data for this project are from the Family Housing and Me (FHAM) project, a landmark longitudinal study on the impact of non‐parental relatives on the lives of LGBTQ+ youth. This paper analyzes a subsample of 35 qualitative interviews with Latinx LGBTQ+ youth (16–19 years old) who live in South Texas or the Inland Empire of California, the majority of whom are transgender or nonbinary. ResultsGrandparents played an important role in the lives of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth interviewees, including providing many of the positive benefits of familismo. The youth also described “disparate experiences” of precarious familismo in how their grandparents simultaneously attempted identity support of their gender identities and reinforced cisnormativity. Youth often navigated these experiences by expressing low expectations that their grandparents would fully understand their gender identities, which we refer to asgenerational gender expectations. ConclusionResearch on LGBTQ+ youth should integrate the study of non‐parental relatives to fully understand support networks and family systems for LGBTQ+ youth. Additionally, cisnormativity plays an important role in family life and familismo.
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Trans family systems framework: Theorizing families' gender investments and divestments in cisnormativity
Abstract ObjectiveThis article calls on family scholars to take seriously how families are invested and divested in maintaining and reproducing cisnormativity. BackgroundFamilies can be a prime institution for the reproduction of cisnormativity. For transgender and nonbinary family members, families' investment in cisnormativity can generate ambiguous and toxic familial relations. Yet, family studies have not developed an adequate framework to examine how and why cisnormativity operates within families. MethodThe authors engage with empirical and theoretical work on gender, intersectionality, and families to examine how cisnormativity operates within family dynamics and processes. This article also focuses on work about trans people and families to capture how cisnormative processes within families affect trans people's familial relations. ResultsThe authors advance a trans family systems framework to show how families' cisgender investments and divestments shape familial processes. The concept of cisnormative compliance is introduced to capture the beliefs and practices of obedience established by family members for the purpose of reproducing cisnormativity. Family studies can move forward in studying these cisnormative processes through documenting how gender accountability shapes family dynamics, implementing new methods, furthering an intersectional analysis, and exploring complexities of space and place. ConclusionTo reimagine gender and families, family scholars need to study and foreground how cisnormativity shapes family dynamics and processes.
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- PAR ID:
- 10582548
- Publisher / Repository:
- Journal of Marriage and Family
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Marriage and Family
- Volume:
- 86
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 0022-2445
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1205 to 1227
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12988
