Based on a careful analysis of interviews and field evidence, No Place Like Home demonstrates how gay and lesbian couples attempt to strike a balance between work and family obligations, and how they must also struggle against forces undermining their relationships. Carrington skillfully addresses the conflicts that surround domestic tasks and shows how gay and lesbian couples sometimes hold unspoken or unrealistic expectations about household and family life. Carrington brings such expectations into the open, and in the process he challenges many stereotypes about gay and lesbian family life, from the myth of gay family affluence to the notion that such relationships are beacons of equality. He argues that family life really varies by class, gender, race, occupation, and neighborhood.
Finally, with one eye on the day-to-day domestic lives of diverse gay and lesbian households and the other eye on the public policy options now emerging to address lesbian and gay family life, Carrington makes the case for expanding domestic partnership policies instead of attaining legal marriage as the ideal solution for achieving happiness, equity, and longevity, for lesbian and gay families.
Acknowledgments Introduction
1. Feeding Lesbigay Families
The Character of Feeding Work Feeding Work and the Creation of Gender, Class, Ethnic, and Family Identities
2. Housework in Lesbigay Families
The Character of Housework Managing and Envisioning Housework Variations in Housework among Lesbigay Households Housework and Relationship Longevity
3. Housework and the Social Production of Lesbigay Family
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
4. Consumption Work in Lesbigay Families
The Character of Consumption Work Variations in Consumption Work Sustaining Lesbigay Families through Consumption Work
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?
Appendix A: Interview Guide Appendix B: Sample Characteristics References Index
Overview
Based on a careful analysis of interviews and field evidence, No Place Like ...