Gender, Sexual Identity, and Families: The Personal Is Political

Introduction: Gender, Sexual Identity, and Families: The Personal is Political

As I write this in the Autumn of 2018 issues of gender are again taking front stage in our politics in the US. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh just testified in front of the US Senate subcommittee regarding Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the US Supreme Court and her accusations of drunken sexual assault (amid other accusations). At the core, this has been about gender and power and we see gender politics playing out in extreme ways—just one example is that Dr. Ford was compelled to be nice, helpful, and responsive, while Judge Kavanaugh was free to be angry, evasive, and nonresponsive. The media is full of analyses of these dynamics (e.g., Fisher, 2018; Lithwick, 2018; Nilson, 2018) and the controversy has opened further our national discussion about sexual violence against women built on the #MeToo movement and other related movements that have brought these issues to the forefront of popular culture. Similarly, at the forefront of our political discourse, there have been political shifts from condemnation to favorable judicial rulings on same-sex marriage and see-sawing political efforts to ban and accept transgender people in the military and other arenas of communities.

Of course, these gender dynamics are nothing new, and whole books could be (and have been written) on how gender and sexuality have been used to marginalize and oppress. In 1988, Virginia Goldner said “Gender ... is not a secondary, mediating variable like race, class, or ethnicity, but, rather, a fundamental, organizing principle of all family systems” (p. 17). She goes on to say “gender and generation are best understood as the two fundamental, organizing principles of family life” (p. 18, italics added). Gender is clearly a key piece of understanding family relationships, and in this volume we add some pieces to the puzzle of understanding the roles that gender and the intersection of gender with sexuality play in families. The Groves Conference on Marriage and Family has long promoted progressive values and takes a social justice approach to looking at family relationships. In the summer of 2016, in Denver, Colorado, we held our Annual Conference to talk about these issues in the variety of ways that they fit with the interdisciplinary nature of Groves. We have articles here that were inspired by the conference or discussed at the conference and that cover a wide range of topics related to gender, sexual identity, and families, covering the lifespan and exploring a range of topics on this issue.

This volume has several important themes. The first is that, unsurprisingly, gender and the role of gender in the power dynamics of families takes center stage in most of these articles. The monograph starts with an exploration of gender polarization over time using the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The research demonstrates that gender polarization increased over the 25-year span of this longitudinal study. Another important theme of this volume is how gender intersects with sexual orientation, explored in a series of chapters looking at shifts in attitudes and treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations. Authors explore the role of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and its repeal, the increasing recognition for transgender individuals in couples and families, as well as the situations of older transgender women in family relationships. Another chapter takes a look at how a church community treats its LGBT members from the perspective of those members, and still another chapter explores alternative relationship paradigms. An overriding theme from these chapters concerns the struggles and the successes of social justice advancement. A theme that connects several chapters is the contextualizing of sexuality and gender issues through a developmental approach. Two chapters explore the role of gender in sexual decision making in youth, a third highlights the use of dance to interpret cultural messages about gender and family, and two others explore later life issues (the aforementioned chapter on older transgender women in families along with a chapter on elder financial exploitation and the role gender plays). Midlife issues are examined by family professionals reflecting on their experiences with gender and work life.

This monograph will appeal to family scientists and to clinicians working with families, and who seek a multidisciplinary approach. There are results from qualitative inquiries as well quantitative studies. Moreover, the contributors are clinicians, researchers, and university administrators working to advance understanding of gender and sexuality in families. The final chapter is a selective glossary—an introduction to concepts of gender and sexuality and a primer on contemporary best practices in language that many will find helpful. As current events and these chapters illuminate, understandings of gender and sexuality and identity continue to unfold in nonlinear and even frustrating fashion, yet the social justice impetus behind these chapters reflects the importance of persistence in our endeavors.