1995/11/14 by Mi Ok Bruining
Medicine · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Child Welfare and Adoption #LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy #Reproductive Health and Technologies
paper · doi:10.1300/j041v03n02_04
openalex publication_date 1995/11/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Lesbian women who are adopted confront a unique set of challenges including coming out, searching or not searching for birth families, and managing relationships with adoptive and birth families (if they are found). This article explores how adopted lesbians negotiate these issues, and how such issues impact the dual yet separate elements which contribute to identity: being adopted and being lesbian. The findings of a study of self-identified lesbians who are adopted are discussed. One of the central findings is that the women interviewed for this study were more comfortable with their lesbian identity than with their adoptive identity.