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Abstract
The current qualitative study of 35 pre-adoptive gay male couples (70 men) examined
gay men's motivations to parent and their reasons for pursuing parenthood at the current
time. Similar to heterosexual couples, gay men described a range of psychologically-oriented
reasons as shaping their decision to become parents. Some of these (e.g., desire to
teach a child tolerance) may have been uniquely shaped by their sexual minority status,
and others (e.g., desire to give a child a good home) in part reflect their adoptive
status. Men named age, finances, and relationship factors, as well as unique contextual
factors such as the need to find and move to gay-friendly neighborhoods, as influencing
their readiness to pursue parenthood at the current time. Gay men's motivations to
parent echo normative life course decision-making processes, but also reflect concerns
that are uniquely informed by their sexual minority status.