Changing childhoods: Using queer theory and intersectional methods to reconsider the epistemic resources of children with gay and lesbian parents

This article explores contemporary childhoods through a lens of epistemic privileges and injustices in order to consider the experiences of children whose family models may not reflect the heterosexual norm. More than 14 million children in the United States have one or more gay parents. As the legal definition of marriage in the United States now recognizes same-sex partnerships, it is likely that this official number will increase. The experiences of children with gay and lesbian parents are often overlooked due to public sentiment toward gay partnerships and parenting, but the changing legal status of gay marriage around the world may indicate a shift in sentiment toward these family structures. For childhood studies researchers, this shift will provide opportunities to conduct studies with children whose voices largely were silenced or omitted from past and current scholarship. Particularly, young children with gay parents are in a unique position to describe the world since they must navigate between their homonormative private worlds and the heteronormative world of public institutions. Drawing on queer theory and incorporating the concept of intersectionality, I posit that applying Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice to studies of childhood may reveal new ways to identify systemic and cultural biases including heteronormativity and adult–child power asymmetries. Examining issues of epistemic injustice through a queer lens and using intersectional methods may elucidate aspects of childhood culture that are misunderstood or absent from the scholarship