Heterosexual Mothers/Lesbian Daughters

This article is based on an interview study of ten Caucasian mothers who, following disclosure of a daughter's lesbianism, ultimately engaged in some activity supportive of parental acceptance and/or the gay civil rights movement. Findings showed that similar to their lesbian daughters, these mothers had assimilated the behaviors and coping skills of an oppressed and stigmatized group, and thus shared similar experiences as part of their acceptance process. In addition, these mothers' process of acceptance was found in many ways to parallel stage-based models of lesbian and homosexual identity formation. The article concludes with a discussion of prevalent issues in psychotherapy with both mothers and daughters.