Content area
Full text
Queering questions that which is normative. In this article, we discuss how, for the study of queer families, queering methodologies could reclaim traditional research methods that reflect historically dominant or privileged paradigms. We suggest that queer perspectives may be used to adapt mainstream (i.e., dominant, positivist, empirical) methods, creating possibilities for new, diverse understandings of queer families. We start with comments on the development and current standing of queer family research. We then reflect on several key conceptual and methodological tensions as they apply to queer family studies: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals ↔ queer families, between-group ↔ within-group, and quantitative ↔ qualitative. In conclusion, we discuss how these methodological considerations provide researchers opportunities to conduct research not only about but for queer families. Such research may reflect the diversity of queer families and challenge the normativities and systems of privilege that constrain them.
Key Words: Families, LGBT, methodology, research methods, queer, sexual and gender minorities.
In what ways might methodologies offer new understanding and richness for the study of queer families? Mainstream methodologies often constrain approaches to the study of families (Allen, Lloyd, & Few, 2009); the concept of queering challenges scholars to interrogate that which is normative (M. Warner, 1999), including their research methods (Russell, 2016). In this article, we reconsider and reimagine methods and methodologies-the "theory and analysis of how research does or should proceed" (Harding, 1987, p. 3)-in ways that might illuminate the full scope of possibilities for queer individuals, families, and the structural conditions in which they live. We conclude by revisiting methods to address current challenges and opportunities in the study of queer families. Ultimately, we aim to challenge dominant narratives in the study of families and provide practical tools and approaches for a more critical investigation of queer families and the diverse, and often un(der)represented, experiences that define them.
Queer Families, Normativities, and Intersectionality
We begin by recognizing the academic roots of queer theory (Butler, 1990; M. Warner, 1999) and note that our use of queer and queer families does not presume personal identities (as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) or queer; Oswald, Blume, & Marks, 2005; Oswald, Kuvalanka, Blume, & Berkowitz, 2009). As both an academic perspective and personal identity, we acknowledge that...