The Media Narrative Around Families Is Racist and Homophobic. It Needs to Stop.

Aleta Sprague and Rachel Black's piece on the myth of the 'welfare queen' was referenced in TalkPoverty:

"Let's talk about the goal first: a stable two-parent family. Brooks is feeding the narrative that there is an ideal kind of family—one that does best, on that is how people should be. It's a family with two married parents. It's a family in which people have children and mostly women raise them. It's a family in which no one dies or is infertile or is incarcerated. It's a family in which no one decides to stay single or childless or get divorced. 

It is, in short, not reality. And making policy around this idealized vision of family has very real, often terrible consequences.

First, there is the emotional toll. When there is one ideal, people are crucified for falling short. They are blamed and marginalized. Their families are vilified and demonized. We have seen this with black single moms during welfare reform, gay parents during the same sex marriage movement, and now families with disabilities as policymakers seek to cut benefits. This helps no one."