Exploring Sexual Narratives as Family Practices: The Coming Out of Italian LGB Parents With Children From Heterosexual Relationships

This article celebrates and critically examines the contributions of Sociological Research Online (SRO) in reshaping sociological debates on family practices and intimacy. The article is structured into two main sections. In the first, I discuss the insights offered by SRO, identifying key issues associated with the reconceptualization of family studies: the interplay between individualisation processes and the enduring relevance of family practices; the debate on de-reifying and de-essentialising ideas of ‘the family’; and the connection between agency and assimilative inclusion of queer subjects in family life. Drawing on these debates, the second section presents the results of an empirical study focused on coming-out narratives of Italian parents with children from heterosexual relationships. The analysis underscores how parents’ reflexivity regarding their coming out in the family is intertwined with daily pragmatism and is influenced by social and cultural ideas of parental competence. The findings are utilised to address the theoretical key points discussed in the first part, with particular emphasis on the intersection of normativity and subversion in queer experiences within and beyond heterosexual and traditional family models.