Becoming parents. Become Family. La genitorialità come nuova forma di coming out

The birth of a child is a very important event in the household because it brings to renegotiate relationships and social representations inside and with a community. When the birth regards a same-sex families, what are the dynamics inside? Which are areas of negotiation and recognition? Which are the support networks? A part of the Italian and International literature argues that the "homosexual kinship" acts as a constraint, unlike a heterosexual kinship who is a resource for new parents. According to Kath Weston (1997), for example, gay and lesbian people are moving away from their original household to create your family network, which often consists of friends. This intervention overturn this interpretation through the results of research carried out in Italy on the same-sex parents with children. Research has collected 23 in-depth interviews to lesbian mothers, 11 to gay fathers (in both cases these are people who live in large majority in a planned families) and 4 in-depth interviews a future gay fathers. Moreover, were collected 77 questionnaires to lesbian and bisexual mothers and 23 to gay and bisexual fathers. The analysis of the material bring up the different ways in which the birth a child or/and a structuring a family with same-sex parents encourage forms of inclusion of new parents within their family and social networks. Inside these networks they exchange concrete help to manage the needs of everyday life as forms of legitimation of their "family". This concerns both mothers and fathers homosexuals as members of their families. It is not uncommon that they find confirmation of their family expectations as grandparents, uncles, brothers, sisters, parents.