Experiences of identity, parenting, and family life in bisexual father families

Bisexual parents are often overlooked in research on new family forms, as few studies of parenting take note of individual
parents' sexual orientation, instead referring to relationship composition. This means that in studies of family life in
general, bisexual parents are assumed to be heterosexual, and in studies of same-sex parents, they are assumed to be lesbian
or gay. In a systematic review of research studies on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) parents, Ross & Dobinson
(2013) found that only seven of 422 articles referred specifically to the experiences of bisexual parents, demonstrating the
overall lack of research on this topic. Yet sixty-four percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) parents are bisexual
(Goldberg, Gartrell, & Gates, 2014), so this population cannot be written off as an insignificant minority. The proposed
PhD research will address the specific invisibility of bisexual fathers within this literature using an identity-focused
approach that is novel to the scholarship on LGBTQ+ families. In so doing, this research will offer an evidence-based
perspective on bisexual father families that reflects the nuances of parenting experiences among this population.