Intentions and Motivations to Parent

Around the world and across cultures, most people eventually become parents. Unwanted pregnancies do occur, but most unplanned pregnancies are merely mistimed; most childless people are motivated to[Page 591] become parents and plan to become parents at some time. Descriptions of intentions and motivations for parenthood have appeared in literature as old as the Hebrew Bible, and they persist cross-culturally today. Even the phenomena of nonheterosexual and transgender parenthood are not new: Historically, people in Western societies who experienced same-sex desires and intimacies often married different-sex partners and became parents, a practice that has become less common among sexual-minority adults, but still occurs today. Most LGBTQ people today, however, face unique barriers to parenthood. Family formation outside of heterosexual marriage has historically been stigmatized in ...