It Just Happens

Thu, 05/20/2010 - 10:40 | Point of Policy

Chrys Ingraham was quoted in S. Seidman’s 1996 book:

“The heterosexual imaginary is that way of thinking which conceals the operation of heterosexuality in structuring gender and closes off any critical analysis of heterosexuality as an organizing institution. The effect of this depiction of reality is that heterosexuality circulates as taken for granted, naturally occurring, and unquestioned……”
 
We live in a ‘heteronormative’ society where lesbian and gay couples are thought of as being in the “other” category. When it comes to fostering and adopting children, do social workers expect most applicants to be a heterosexual couple? If the applicants are not, are they surprised and immediately think “other”? What about how the couples present themselves? If a lesbian couple present as being ‘more straight’ in appearance and speech, are they more likely to be accepted than a lesbian couple that may resemble what some consider to be the stereotype appearance of a lesbian couple? This is something I have pondered, and have recently been validated by a social worker from Children’s Administration; that it is “very common but it is not discussed, it just happens”. My hope is that we get to a place in society that there is not a ‘normal’ or an ‘other,’ that we may base our judgment of people on who they are, and not what category they fit into.
 
Lisa I.
MSW Student at UW
Families Like Ours Policy BLOGGER