Literature Review

Kelly Laysears
Professor Marlen Harrison
English 202
16 March 2010

Pre Lit Review

The purpose of this literature review is to help my readers get a taste of previous research I found on my topic. To let the readers see how I gather some of my thoughts and how different articles gave me new ways of thinking and going about my research. The literature review is different from the other section of my research paper because it allows the readers to get some ideas about past research relating to my research topic and some quotes and stats from various authors and journals that they may be familiar with. By the end of this literature review I hope to give my readers an idea of how I shaped my thoughts and how my research topic differs from previous research topics about Lesbian women. I hope that everyone will read this research paper, but to be more precise maybe some lesbian women, bisexual women and women with children. The way I would tailor this audience would be to stick to the topic and not go way off subject. Since this research topic hasn’t been done often I hope to open up a new door to lesbianism research.  

Literature Review

When I first began this research project, I was so excited about the research question I had come up with. But as I began to research more and more information on this topic I began to notice it wasn’t much information that fit my research question the best. I began to get pushed into other avenues of Lesbianism. I find lots of information on Lesbian mothers and growing up with lesbian parents. I even came across research about a philosopher Lawrence Crocker. In 1919, philosopher Lawrence Crocker (Crocker, 1979) wrote the first sustained ethical analysis of using a prenatal intervention to control the sexual orientation of children.

Crocker called the attempt to control sexual orientation ‘meddling’, but he nevertheless outlined a strong defence of parents’ rights to use a “magic pill’ that could be taken during pregnancy to ensure heterosexual children. When I read this journal it absolutely through me for a loop, a “magical pill” this can’t be true. Although I gathered helpful information surrounding my research topic, I was still unsatisfied with what information I found on my topic.

I than began thinking outside the box and going about my research in a different way. At many times I wanted to change my research question because at times it became frustrating, but I knew this is the topic that was dear to my heart and I needed to get to the bottom of it. As I began to read more into some of the journals I found I started to notice a pattern of methodologies such as case studies. Some case studies involved Lesbian mothers seeking children through artificial insemination or adoption and other cases where groups of young teens that were growing up with lesbian or gay parents. While reading some of these articles, I began to notice plenty statistics popping up. For instance while reading Growing up with a lesbian or gay parent: young people’s perspectives by Anna Fairtlough I came across this piece if information. Estimates of the number of children in the USA who have a lesbian or gay parent range from 1 to 13 million (Martin 1993, Stacey & Biblarz 2001).

Works Cited:

Murphy, Timothy F. “Gay science: assisted reproductive technologies and the sexual orientation of children.” Reproductive BioMedicine Online 10.(2005): 102-106.

Crocker C 1979, Meddling with the sexual orientation of children. In O’Neill O (ed.) Having Children: Philosophical and Legal Reflections on Parenthood. Oxford University Press, New York.

Fairtlough, Anna. “Growing up with a lesbian or gay parent: young people’s perspectives.” Health & Social Care in the Community 16.5 (2008): 521-528.

Martin A. (1993) The Lesbian and Gay Parenting Handbook: Creating and Raising our Families. Harper Collins, New York.

Post Lit Review 

I think that came across better than I expected, although I have much more to add to the Lit Review I feel like I’m finally getting somewhere. I think my readers can start to see where i’m going with this research paper and also get and idea of how I shaped several of my thoughts.