Rainbow families: the sociological path of homosexuals parenting

• Main Author: Giuseppina La Delfa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Università di Napoli Federico II 2013-10-01
• Series: La camera blu
• Subjects: Omogenitorialità, famiglie contemporanee, secolarizzazione della società italiana, resistenza ai mutamenti.
• Online Access: http://www.camerablu.unina.it/index.php/camerablu/article/view/2000

Nowadays rainbow families can live openly, thanks to the fact that society has deeply changed since the 60’s. It is clear by now to all sociologists that in the western society children’s birth and care are less and less jointed to the concept of “one father, one mother, and one hearth”. Today we make children by ourselves, or by two (but not always a man and a woman), or even by three or four, if adding to the intentional parents also the donors’ and/or the surrogate mothers’ participations, or if considering adoptive children conceived by others, but only parented by the intentional parents, etc. Among blended families, co-parented families, single mothers parenting their children with help from some friends, or sisters, or mothers, or grandparents of theirs, the arrangements of families, and of children’s attachments, are just unlimited. In this context there is space for our families, even if resistance is strong, especially in Italy, while half of Europe is now recognizing and upholding these new families.