Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - DP120066
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED335627 AUTHOR: Pearlman, Sarah F.
TITLE: Heterosexual Mothers/Lesbian Daughters: Parallels
and Similarities.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1990
NOTE: 37 p.; Paper presented at the Annual Convention of
the American Psychological Association (98th, Boston, MA,
August 10-14, 1990).
ABSTRACT: Since the Stonewall riots between gay men and
police in New York City in 1969 and the lesbian manifestos
of the Women's Liberation Movement in the early 1970s,
there has been an intensification of the struggle to end
the stigmatization of homosexuality. This study explored
retrospectively the experience of mothers (N=10) who had
learned that a daughter is a lesbian. The central question
of this study was whether there was an identifiable
sequence or process by which mothers came to accept a
daughter's lesbianism and if this process paralleled the
process of lesbian identity formation as previously
described in research. Subjects were selected from a
special group of mothers who were anticipated to have
reached an advanced level of acceptance, as defined by
these mothers' public disclosure through engaging in some
activity supportive of parental acceptance and/or the gay
civil rights movement. The results indicated that coming to
terms with nonconforming gender role, or masculine-like
appearance and behaviors in daughters and partners
presented a major hurdle. Despite their public social and
political engagement, the majority of the mothers
interviewed reported that they continued to struggle with
unresolved feelings towards homosexuality; that feelings of
loss, concern over discrimination, and self-consciousness
about themselves as the mother of a lesbian daughter
persisted; and that they often wished their daughters were
heterosexual. (Author/ABL)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Daughters-; *Lesbianism-; *Mothers-;
*Parent-Child-Relationship; *Sex-Role
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