No place like home relationships and family life among lesbians and gay men - Carrington, Christopher (University of Chicago Press, 1999)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-265) and index
Introduction. Vantage points: situating myself -- Vantage points: intellectual traditions and the study of domesticity -- Caring and domesticity among lesbigay families -- The work and family lives of lesbigay people -- Equality, egalitarianism, and fairness -- The organization and method of the study -- The participants -- Characteristics of the participants -- Domestic diversity -- Overview -- pt. 1. Feeding lesbigay families. The character of feeding work -- Feeding work and the creation of gender, class, ethnic, and family identities -- pt. 2. Housework in lesbigay families. The character of housework -- Managing and envisioning housework -- Variations in housework among lesbigay households -- Housework and the social production of lesbigay family -- pt. 3. Kin work among lesbigay families. Kith as family -- The lesbigay family kin keepers -- Variations in kin work patterns -- Kin work and the creation of family -- pt. 4. Consumption work in lesbigay families. The character of consumption work -- Variations in consumption work -- Sustaining lesbigay families through consumption work -- pt. 5. The division of domestic labor in lesbigay families. The egalitarian myth -- The egalitarian pattern -- The specialization pattern -- Pragmatic choices and the sense of fairness -- Conclusion. Domesticity and the political economy of lesbigay families. Family aspirations -- The political economy of constructing family -- Now you see it, now you don't: gender and domesticity -- Devalued and invisible: lesbigay domesticity -- Marriage and lesbigay domesticity: who will be bound by the ties that bind? -- What do lesbigay families need to prosper?
In the rich, often surprising portrait of the everyday world of lesbian and gay relationships, Christopher Carrington captures the experiences of creating and maintaining a home and a "chosen" family. Observing lesbians and gay men as they go about their daily routines, Carrington unveils the complex, frequently hidden, and sometimes artful ways that gay people make a family and home for themselves