Background
Phyllis Burke was born on March 13, 1951.
(A lesbian recounts her fight to legally adopt and co-pare...)
A lesbian recounts her fight to legally adopt and co-parent her lover's child, describing her journey into the worlds of adoption courts and the militant activist group, Queer Nation.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679421882/?tag=2022091-20
1993
Phyllis Burke was born on March 13, 1951.
In 1989 author Phyllis Burke’s first book, the novel Atomic Candy, was published.
Long accustomed to “passing” as heterosexual much of the time, she found that parenthood forced her to confront discrimination and homophobia in a more direct way. Her second book, Family Values: Two Moms and Their Son, chronicles her personal development as both a parent and an activist in the San Francisco homosexual community. Los Angeles Times Book Review critic Lillian Faderman contended that “Burke succeeds in this memoir in charging the fanatical right with the intent to tear apart loving families that do not conform to their narrow definitions and in wrestling from the right their claim to a monopoly on ‘family values.’”
The work was also cited for its value as a historical account. Critic S. H. Hildahl of Choice commended the “penetrating analysis of the activist gay and lesbian community in San Francisco during 1990-92.” Women's Review of Books critics Susan Contratto and Margaret Buttenheim called Family Values “an elaborated, vivid history of the gay community in San Francisco over a fifteen-year period.” “The book is of interest for this history alone,” Contratto and Buttenheim concluded.
Burke’s third book, Gender Shock: Exploding the Myths of Male and Female, was again prompted by parenthood, specifically the author’s concerns about what impact growing up without a father might have upon her son.
(A lesbian recounts her fight to legally adopt and co-pare...)
1993(Combining investigative journalism with a survey of curre...)
1996Burke had been in a committed lesbian relationship with her companion Cheryl for many years when she and her partner decided to raise a child Jesse.