In our contemporary world, lesbian families continue to navigate unique challenges while building loving, resilient communities. These families are real, diverse, and loving—yet they often remain invisible in mainstream conversations about family structures and parenting. The consequences of this limited representation can be quite concerning for the psychological well-being of people belonging to lesbian communities who rarely see their experiences validated. It is vital that we strive for genuine and inclusive representations of lesbian families in media not only to affirm visibility but also as necessary to reflect on their journey by sharing their diverse lived experiences, challenges, and resilience. 

Lesbian families face distinct obstacles in their journeys through relationships, parenting, and adoption. This is why "Reimagine: Lesbian Families in Media" is all about amplifying lesbian families' voices and stories, showing why lesbian families’ stories matter—and they matter so much that more media must be created to show their diverse experiences in parenting, relationships, adoption, and so much more. By sharing these diverse stories, we honor the reality that lesbian families are not just surviving, but they uniquely flourish in the community. 

It is not a reach when mental health and well-being are brought into the conversation of discrimination and prejudice. Commonly held marginalizing beliefs are the cornerstone of heterosexism, cisgenderism, endosexism, and all the other -isms. This creates an environment for LGBTQI individuals that often have negative thoughts, actions, and reactions towards them. In fact, social stigma is a key mediator for the mental health issues of LGBTQI individuals (Clarke et al., 2020). Lesbian families are targets of discrimination and prejudice, and therefore, social stigma as well. In their cases, social, legal, and financial barriers are present. It comes from glares and whispers to laws that put heteronormative values as the primary. These may come from beliefs that two women cannot effectively raise children as much as a man and a woman could. Institutionally, especially in the Philippines, the Catholic Church supports these ideas as well. Apart from this, there is the fact that there can be double jeopardy within the LGBTQI community itself. A lack of diverse representation can lead to this when stereotypical portrayals are at the forefront. 

The conversation around diversity and inclusion remains incomplete without acknowledging the realities of lesbian families, particularly within the Philippines with its highly conservative and heteronormative institutions. Despite growing LGBTQI visibility, lesbian families remain invisibilized or misrepresented in media, policy, and public discourse as their existence challenges the dominant societal construct of a “real” family. This calls for a broader, more radical understanding of parenthood, kinship, and care. As such, when we aim to provide authentic inclusion and showcase diversity that is meaningful, it does not only revolve around visible differences or numeral inclusion. It is also important that it brings to the forefront how  love and parenting can thrive in varied structures. Lesbian families—whether biological, adoptive, or chosen, whether with two lesbian couples or a single lesbian mother—demonstrate that family is not confined to a mother-father binary (Ballaret, 2024; Erera & Fredriksen, 1999). 

As such, the conversation about diversity and inclusion must not just be about adding lesbian families into existing narratives; it must move beyond token representation. Impactful inclusion and diversity representation means validating the complex identities within these families and ensuring that they are not only seen but respected and celebrated.  It’s about reshaping narratives to fully embrace the lived experiences of Lesbian families all while challenging stereotypes, and advocating for structural change in media, education, and legislation, thus serving as a pillar in the fight for equity and justice. 

By recognizing lesbian families as equally valid and valuable, we don’t just diversify our definitions of family—we expand the very possibilities of belonging, care, and love.

The existence of lesbian families redefine what it means to be a parent—and their existence alone is very powerful in the sense that they challenge the dominant culture of heteronormativity. A study by Erera and Fredriksen (1999) shows how lesbian parents navigate complex family dynamics, including shared parenting roles and legal invisibility—especially in stepfamilies where traditional labels do not quite fit their lived experiences. These families often rely on the community or their chosen families as support systems. 

In the context of the Philippines, where conservative values continue to dominate, same-sex couples, particularly lesbian couples, have found their unique and creative ways to form families. Amidst legal issues they faced, as in the Philippine legal framework, members of the LGBTQI community are legal to adopt but only as individuals (Magsumbol, 2024), not as couples. They are barred from joint adoption under the Family Code, as only married couples are allowed to joint adoption. Additionally, lesbian families are also facing unrecognition from the Family Code of the Philippines as it only recognizes marriages between “a man and a woman.” However, amidst legal issues they face through informal adoption or raising relatives’ children, they still remain loving and resilient—and such shows their resistance against societal expectations (Ballaret, 2024). 

Lesbian families’ stories remind us that family takes many forms, and it is time the media started telling those stories, too.

On Families

Despite the visible progress of LGBTQI representation in media nowadays, lesbian families remain underrepresented or sometimes misrepresented in mainstream media—and it can significantly affect how actual families are perceived in society and, by extension—how they see themselves. To further elaborate, Reed (2018a) talks about how this lack of visibility can lead to feelings of exclusion, internal conflict, and difficulty in navigating family identity—especially for LGBTQI parents who rarely see their realities reflected on screen. Even when representation exists, Reed (2018b) also states how easily such can fall into harmful stereotypes that fail to capture the diversity and complexity of lesbian motherhood. For lesbian mothers, media is not just a means of entertainment—it is also a tool for validation wherein their experiences can be mirrored and understood. Considering a different perspective—Snyder et. al.,(2023) note that in children’s media, the inclusion of LGBTQI families may be slowly growing, but most portrayals still focus on characters aimed at older children—avoiding showing everyday family life, which can be vital to building understanding at a young age. However, the study also proposes that positive portrayals of diverse families can be one way of including LGBTQI representation for younger children. This can help children foster empathy, reduce prejudice, and create space for children of lesbian families (and other children within diverse families) to feel seen and understood.

For these reasons, “Reimagine: Lesbian Families in Media” calls for media to continue challenging the dominance of heteronormative family representation, because in order to truly support lesbian families, media must go beyond and begin telling fuller, truer stories that reflect the lovingness, complexity, and realness of their’ lives.

Films, shows, and stories can be a form of self-expression, but they can also be powerful tools for social change. An expression of what truly exists in our world lies in the reality that not all families consist of a father and a mother and that even outside this, there is much more diversity. Family takes many forms, and lesbian families are one of them. That is why “Reimagine: Lesbian Families in Media” encourages artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creatives to produce more stories that center lesbian families and for audiences to actively seek out and support these narratives. Creating and consuming such media is not simply about representation for its own sake; it is about partaking in the act of creating a more just and inclusive society. When we tell the stories of lesbian families with the respect and dignity they deserve, we affirm their existence and challenge systems of erasure rooted in heteronormativity, sexism, and patriarchy. This is all the more important in countries like the Philippines as legal recognition and social acceptance remain limited for many LGBTQI Filipinos.

Importantly, media representation should not be viewed as the end goal, but as a stepping stone toward broader advocacies. Mainstream lesbian families to combat discrimination and prejudice. Represent the underrepresented lesbian families and promote diversity and inclusion. Validate the lives of many lesbian families and provide them with the tools they need to express themselves. Representation informs perception and when we make space for these stories in media, we place a block in the stepping stone for social, legal, and cultural shifts that benefit not only lesbian families but all marginalized groups.