Gay men and fatherhood: Doing gender, queering gender, and the package deal

The gay fatherhood literature offers a unique opportunity to analyze, apply, and explore the nuances of gender and family theories. To do this, this review will implement three theoretical models: doing gender, queer theory, and the package deal. Gay men can be viewed as both doing gender when parenting and undoing or queering traditional ideas about gender and family. It appears gay fathers are readily aware of these gendered parenting roles, but do not want their parenting to be constrained by them. Townsend's () package deal, present in his sample of heterosexual fathers, is relevant to research on gay fathers. An explanation of the importance of research on gay fathers and suggestions of future research on this demographic are made.