Asexuality and Its Implications for LGBTQ-Parent Families

Abstract

Asexuality, most often defined as a lack of sexual attraction, has emerged as a relatively new sexual identity category, and very little research has yet to explore asexual families and parenting. In this chapter, I review the literature on asexuality and its implications for parenting research and LGBTQ-parent families. First, I explain the meanings of asexuality through a review of its competing definitions and the evolving vocabulary of sexual and romantic dispositions within the asexual community. I also examine the methodological issues that have made asexuality especially difficult to research and the growth of asexuality as an identity movement in resistance to pathologizing narratives of sexual dysfunction. Next, I examine intersections between asexuality and gender, race, class, and disability, with critical attention toward the relationship between asexuality and the broader LGBTQ umbrella. I then review existing knowledge of asexual individuals’ experiences of parenting, intimate relationships, and marginalization. Practitioners are urged to consider the validity of many types of intimacy as research on asexual parenting can further societal understandings of diverse expressions of love and family formation.