Queer parenthood: It’s multifaceted. It’s complex. And it is constantly changing, as laws and culture shift around us. What’s in a Name? reflects on this complexity through the voices of nonbiological/non-gestational queer mothers/parents who explore our experiences parenting across our different social and familial locations. The authors have all taken different routes to parenting, live in different countries, and understand our relationships to parenting through our own personal experiences. What we share is a commitment to parenting beyond the limits of biology, and of building families that are drawn together and maintained by the love and labour of parenting.

The fifteen essays in this book address three key moments in our parenting journeys. First, we examine the routes we took to parenting, with many of us specifically focusing on the experience of being the “other” mother while our partners were pregnant, and the particular fears, anxieties, and triumphs that come with it. Second, we locate ourselves “in the thick of it” as parents, where the experiences shared among parents are colored by our particular experiences as nonbiological/non-gestational mothers/parents. Finally, we reflect on our identities, including the identity of “mother,” and how those grow, shift, and develop throughout our parenting journeys.

Sherri Martin-Baron is the nonbiological and non-gestational mother of three fabulous kids. She lives in upstate New York where she is an instructor of English to Speakers of Other Languages at the college level. She is passionate about her family, climate change, and grammar. This is her first co-editing project.

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Raechel Johns is an Australian marketing academic, and parent. Her days are spent reading, writing, participating in leadership and admin activities (she’s Department Head) and spending time with her family. When she gets time ‘off’, she’s still reading and writing, but also travelling, playing board games, watching movies and cooking.

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Emily Regan Wills was born in the US and raised in feminist and anti-war movements. She is a professor of American and comparative politics at the University of Ottawa. She was everybody’s mom friend long before she was an actual mom.

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