There is no one-size-fits-all structure for the American family. Research shows more people are living in multigenerational households and in other arrangements that look different from the “traditional” nuclear family, a concept some argue has always been a myth. In this essay, Tyler Bradway and Elizabeth Freeman argue that what constitutes a family isn’t solely a private affair. Rather, the definition of a family has political and economic consequences, with some families protected and others challenged. Bradway and Freeman explain the concept of “queer kinship,” describing a range of relationships in which people love and care for each other, and advocate for “expansive understandings of the family.”
