Family Pride

November 15, 2012

Doubly marginalized, LGBT families may not feel recognized and affirmed by many agencies that serve families. This earnest, well-researched overview is directed primarily toward families with minor children and one or two LGBT parents, and is ostensibly, as per its title, written as a strategic guide to successfully navigating daily life. However, it reads more as if targeted to policymakers, opinion leaders, and the (non-LGBT) general public, as it comprises an overview of the state of queer families in America, blending statistics and anecdotes to build a convincing case for the many challenges these families typically face in their neighborhoods, schools, health care facilities, religious institutions, and the legal system. Shelton (director, sexual-minority treatment services, Equilibria Psychological Consultants) concludes with a solid set of policy recommendations to protect the parent-child relationship, ensure equal access to government benefits, and create a culture of affirmation and inclusion, taken from the recent report "All Children Matter: How Legal and Social Inequalities Hurt LGBT Families" (though the report is barely mentioned earlier in the book). VERDICT Important but diffuse, this volume attempts to reach multiple audiences, somewhat diminishing its effectiveness, but is worth making available to all potential readers.--Janet Ingraham Dwyer, State Lib. of Ohio, Columbus

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