“It’s just my life”: being an ‘ordinary’ LGBTQI+ parent in a heteronormative world

Abstract: In this chapter we draw on a set of interviews with LGBTQI+ parents in which they talk about their relationships with their children’s schools. We focus on a subset of these parents, who wanted their families to be treated as ‘just a family like any other’, and consider how they manage this in a context in which heteronormative parenting is taken for granted. We discuss the various strategies these parents used to come out to their children’s schools and to other parents, how they supported their children in managing their teachers’ and peers’ knowledge of their LGBTQI+ status, and how being LGBTQI+ intersects with other aspects of parenting children and young people during their school years. We explain how this group of parents sought to blend into their local parent communities, and discuss problems arising from the heteronormativity of schools and society, and how the parents overcame or otherwise dealt with these.

Author(s): Carrie Paechter & Matthew Carlile

Date Published: 2025

Depositing User: Basiratu Kolawole

Keywords: LGBTQI+ & Heteronormativity

Page(s): 1-25

Place of publication: London, UK

Subject(s): Gender

Type of publication: Journal Article