Please join us for a book talk with Lane Igoudin, author of A Family, Maybe (Ooligan Press / PSU, 2024), a gay couple’s turbulent journey to building a family during the rise of the first wave of out gay families in Los Angeles in the early 2000s.
Lane will be in conversation with Professor Craig Loftin (CSU Fullerton), queer historian and the author of Letters to ONE. Curator Alexis Bard Johnson will provide a response following the talk before conversation opens to the audience.
Public adoption can be filled with twists, turns and heartache. This is something writer Lane Igoudin and his husband Jonathan experienced firsthand in their 3-year journey to adopt their daughters. Lane’s memoir offers an unprecedented look at the adoption side of an overburdened, and at times chaotic LA’s foster system, the largest in the country. The book shows how it impacts the lives of everyone involved, from the children raised in foster care, to the suffering birth parents, to the couples like Lane’s desperately hoping to start families of their own.
A Family, Maybe also documents the changing political environment of the pre-equality era in which queer families began to come out of the shadows and into public spotlight. In the early 2000s, with gay marriage and adoption still illegal in most U.S. states, Lane and Jon’s family would join the first wave of out LGBTQ+ families fighting for respect and equality.
As Stacey Stevenson, CEO, Family Equality, the nation’s LGBTQ family advocacy organization, notes: “Remarkably honest, A Family, Maybe personalizes the experience of the surging number of LGBTQ+ adoptive parents who came of age in the 2000s. They pushed the boundaries of both the LGBTQ and adoptive-parent movements, battling discrimination and a broken child welfare system.”
The book received also received other supportive reviews and endorsements, including:
“An inspiring portrait of steadfast love under pressure." — Janet Fitch, White Oleander, an Oprah’s Book Club selection
“A heartfelt memoir, weaving in the story of gay parenting in the U.S. and of the vibrant community of gay dads in Los Angeles.” — The Mombian Database of LGBTQ Family Books
“A complicated, tender story of building a family.” — Trystan Reece, transgender family activist and author of How We Do Family
“An important lesson from a transformative era when California’s LGBTQ+ community was struggling to gain acceptance, respect, and equal rights.” — California State Senator Sheila Kuehl
"A story of hope and perseverance” —U.S. Congressman Alan Lowenthal
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Lane Igoudin, Ph.D., has written extensively on foster adoption, parenting, and LGBTQ topics for Adoption.com, FamilyEquality.org, Forward, Lambda Literary Review, and LGBTQ Nation, and spoken about his book on NBC's "Daytime" show as well as a variety of syndicated radio shows and literary and parenting podcasts. Lane is professor of English and linguistics at Los Angeles City College and recently served as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow with the Humanities Division of UCLA.
Craig M. Loftin earned his Ph.D in U.S. History from the University of Southern California. He teaches in the American Studies Department at Cal State Fullerton. He is the author of "Masked Voices: Gay Men and Lesbians in Cold War America," and the editor of "Letters to ONE: Gay and Lesbian Voices from the 1950s and 1960s."