LGBTQ+ families: building community while extending the boundaries of the LGBTQ+ community

Abstract

The LGBTQ+ community is an “imagined community” whose members share a sameness: sexual orientation and/or gender identity. It is composed of subcommunities. One of those is comprised of LGBTQ+ families who gather in a non-profit named Family Equality (1979). This group organizes every year a weeklong event that enables families to see each other thus making this “imagined community” tangible. This paper examines how they build this sense of belonging and why they want to be part of this group. Moreover, children of LGBTQ+ people have also gathered in a group called COLAGE (1990) and coined the word Queerspawn to describe their identity. They therefore claim their belonging to the LGBTQ+ community by virtue of parentage irrespective of sexual orientation and/or gender identity thus redefining the boundaries of the LGBTQ+ community as a whole.