Editorial: LGBTQ families in the 21st Century

• Published date: 01 September 2015
• Author: Jay L. Lebow
• Date: 01 September 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12168

SEPTEMBER 2015 VOLUME 54 NUMBER 3

Editorial: LGBTQ families in the 21st Century

JAY L. LEBOW*

Fam Proc 54:391–395, 2015

This issue features a special section about LGBTQ families edited by Robert-Jay Green,

who has been a major voice over many years about family science, family therapy, and

family policy focused on these families. This section could not be more timely. As we go to

press, the Supreme Court of the United States has just ruled that the United States Con-

stitution guarantees the right to same sex marriage. This closely follows a referendum in

Ireland which approved gay marriage there. It provides a moment of hope in the wake of

these developments. Sometimes, public policy about family life can progress, despite the

presence of forces pulling in regressive directions. And sometimes, the findings from social

science can actually inform public policy.

The politics surrounding the recognition of same sex marriage are filled with irony. Peo-

ple self-labeled as conservatives have been the prime force in trying to block LGBTQ peo-

ple from access to one of the key conservative institutions: marriage. Clearly, with

marriage comes more conservative life choices. The social science literature long ago docu-

mented the many advantages that accrue with marriage, including better health, long er

life, greater relationship stability, greater happiness, and fewer mental health problems

(Waite & Gallagher, 2000). Yet, it has proven a struggle to bestow these benefits to same

sex individuals. Some of those who explicitly most promote “family” as a value, and most

strongly promote the benefits of marriage, have tended to be the strongest opposition to

extending marriage and “family” to LGBTQ families.

Social science has played an important role in the progress leading to the acceptance of

same sex marriage, though it certainly has not been the only force (were public policy

about family life primarily governed by the best evidence of social science, many other

social issues would be handled much differently than they are presently). First came the

debunking of the notions held for centuries about the innate pathology in LGBTQ rela tion-

ships, which resulted in removing these ways of being in relationships as a psychiatric

diagnosis (one irony here is that this was for the first few DSMs their only foray into

*Editor, Family Process and Family Institute at Northwestern.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jay Lebow, Ph.D., Family Institute at

Northwestern, 618 Library Place, Evanston, IL 60201. Email: j-lebow@northwestern.edu

391

Family Process, Vol. 54, No. 3, 2015 ©2015 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12168