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Sex Roles (2010) 62:389391 DOI 10.1007/s11199-009-9738-x
BOOK REVIEW
Is American Family Law Queer Enough for Contemporary Families?
Courting Change: Queer Parents, Judges, and the Transformation of American Family Law. By Kimberly D. Richman, New York, New York University Press, 2009. 265 pp. $39.00 ISBN: 978-0-8147-7595-0
Katherine A. Kuvalanka
Published online: 20 January 2010# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
Kimberly D. Richmans Courting Change is an important documentation and critical analysis of family case law as it pertains to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) parents. Richman methodically lays out her multidimensional argument for the indeterminacy of family law as the central mechanism through which LGBT-parent families have been able to gain increased recognition and rights in the United States. She notes that this indeterminacy, whereby the very definition of family is not even an agreed upon matter, has generally been viewed as a detriment to LGBT parents who have ventured into the family court system to pursue custody, visitation, and/or adoption rights. Some LGBT non-biological parents, for example, have been denied a legal relationship with their children based on the assumption that a child cannot have two parents of the same sex. Richman, however, puts forth a framing of indeterminacy as a double-edged sword, whereby judicial decisions in regard to LGBT-parent families have necessarily had varying outcomes that have reflected both the enduring heteronormative biases of the courts, as well as the creative potential of family law. This potential for creativity and flexibility, argues Richman, is what has allowedand will continue to allow the law to be relevant to the changing nature of families now and in the future: (We) must look deeper than the assumption that eradicating indeterminacy will eradicate discrimination; instead, understanding the contours of indeterminacy expands the possibilities for exploiting the space it affords for progressive social and legal change (p. 10).
Utilizing examples from the 316 appeals court judicial decisions involving LGBT parents in child custody, visitation, or adoption cases in the U.S. between 1952 and 2004, Richman helps the reader understand the contours of indeterminacy in family law and the coinciding, multiple pathways that have led to increasingly positive change for LGBT-parent families in the courts. After introducing her central argument regarding indeterminacy as a double-edged sword, Richman delves into...