Faculty Bibliography

The nuclear family ideal is failing to deliver on its promises. Not only are Americans choosing to delay and avoid marriage, but those who do marry and have children increasingly find the nuclear family structure isolating, fragile, and insufficient for caring for children and other dependents. One reason the marriage and nuclear family ideal may have hung on so long is the failure to develop a workable, modern alternative—not a second best to settle for, but a compelling, robust, alternative vision of how people relate that can accomplish what the nuclear family is failing to. This Article articulates such a vision and illustrates how the American legal system can support it. A new paradigm is necessary, one that does not focus so exclusively on one’s nuclear family but recognizes the web of connections every person has, which exist on a gradient of closeness and commitment. We call these connections a person’s parafamily and argue that both American culture and the American legal system should recognize, affirm, and support parafamilial connections that individuals choose to build their lives around. In particular, American law should shift away from assuming a person’s most important relationships are within one’s nuclear family and instead adopt a parafamilial framework, where the core questions are how close one person is to another and in what way, rather than whether one person is related to another by blood, marriage, or adoption. Inspired by extended and blended families, committed platonic friends, and polyamorous people who already live a life defined by parafamilial connections, this Article aims to rewrite the fundamental assumptions about family that underlie American law, replacing the focus on the nuclear family with a more flexible framework—a framework that is broader, more realistic, and more adaptable than the nuclear family ideal. Coupled with this big picture goal, however, is an intense and intentional commitment to practical law reform and a deep respect and appreciation for the value that nuclear families provide. Thus, the Article’s reform suggestions are all targeted toward developing realistic innovations in the law we already have, rather than toward reimagining all legal relationships from the ground up.

Gender-Affirming Psychiatric Care 1st Edition and published by American Psychiatric Association Publishing. The Digital and eTextbook ISBNs for Gender-Affirming Psychiatric Care are 9781615374731, 1615374736 and the print ISBNs are 9781615374724, 1615374728. Save up to 80% versus print by going digital with VitalSource.

In the past two years, in 25 US states, bills have been introduced to restrict access to gender-affirming medical care for minors. Some have already become law. We show how these bills, while purporting to “protect” trans youth, are really an assault on their ability, along with their parents’ and physicians’, to make healthcare choices and to receive medically necessary care. We discuss the evidence-based guidelines for the care of these patients, the positions taken by major medical societies against these bills, and the landscape of legal challenges that are being brought against these enacted laws.

The sheer gamut of issues impacting transgender health equity may seem overwhelming. This article seeks to introduce readers to the breadth of topics addressed in this symposium edition, exemplifying that transgender health equity is a global issue that demands an interdisciplinary approach.