Books: LGBTQ families
A genuinely thin shelf, and everything on it predates the law it describes. We would rather say that than pad it. Every entry says who it is not for, which is the useful part and the part nobody else prints.
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LGBTQ families: 3 books
Ordered by how well evidenced they are rather than by how good they are, because those are different questions and the second one depends on who you are.
Frederick Hertz, Emily Doskow · Nolo · first published 2014 · 441 pages
Frederick Hertz and Emily Doskow are both attorneys who practice in LGBTQ family law; Nolo is a respected legal self-help publisher.
A Nolo self-help legal guide covering the practical legal issues facing same-sex couples — property, parenting, and relationship dissolution.
Read it if Someone wanting a plain-English overview of legal concepts relevant to LGBTQ couples, as a starting point before talking to a lawyer.
Do not read it if Anyone relying on this for current legal accuracy — the 2014 edition predates Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the Supreme Court decision that made marriage a nationwide right for same-sex couples, so its treatment of marriage recognition and the legal landscape is out of date in ways that matter for anyone actually filing for divorce today.
Check the edition Legal self-help books date fast, and this one predates the single biggest legal change in this area in decades — federal marriage recognition after Obergefell in 2015.
One caution. Check for a current edition or talk to a family law attorney in your state before relying on anything here about marriage recognition or divorce procedure.
No rating we could verify — we leave this blank rather than repeat a number we have not seen at its source.
Frederick Hertz · NOLO · first published 2013 · 260 pages
Frederick Hertz is an attorney and mediator who practices in LGBTQ family law.
A Nolo guide to the range of legal relationship statuses available to same-sex couples — marriage, domestic partnership, civil union — and how to choose and formalize one.
Read it if Someone wanting historical or general background on how these relationship statuses differ.
Do not read it if Anyone using it as a current legal reference — the 2013 edition predates nationwide marriage equality (Obergefell, 2015), and much of its state-by-state patchwork of domestic partnerships and civil unions has since been superseded by marriage law.
Check the edition Predates Obergefell v. Hodges (2015); the state-by-state legal landscape it describes has substantially changed.
One caution. Do not rely on this for current law — confirm anything relevant with a current source or a family law attorney.
No rating we could verify — we leave this blank rather than repeat a number we have not seen at its source.
Stephanie A. Brill · New Harbinger Publications · first published 2001 · 240 pages
Stephanie A. Brill is a family therapist who has worked extensively with LGBTQ families.
A guide to the practical and social realities of LGBTQ parenting — dealing with schools, extended family, and institutions built around a straight default — published in 2001.
Read it if A reader interested in the emotional and social terrain of LGBTQ parenting from a still-thoughtful, if dated, practitioner’s perspective.
Do not read it if Anyone relying on it for current legal information about parental rights, adoption, or custody — the legal landscape for LGBTQ parents has changed enormously since 2001, and this book predates that almost entirely.
Check the edition Published in 2001, well before major legal shifts (including Obergefell in 2015 and subsequent parentage law changes) reshaped LGBTQ parents’ legal standing.
One caution. Read the social and emotional content with interest, but get legal information about parental rights from a current source.
No rating we could verify — we leave this blank rather than repeat a number we have not seen at its source.
Every title, author, publisher, year, page count and ISBN here was checked against a bibliographic database rather than typed from memory, and the candidates that could not be confirmed were dropped rather than guessed at. Ratings are shown only where we could see them at source, which is why several books have none — a blank is honest and an invented four-point-three is not. The judgments about what a book is worth are ours, they are opinions, and you are entitled to disagree with them. Tell us when we are wrong.
Compiled 31 August 2026. Bibliographic data from Open Library. Prices, editions and availability change constantly; the links go to the current listing.