Does Your Mama Know?

Abstract

This chapter explores Black, queer, Southern women’s relationships with their mothers, their desires to have children and mother, and, in some cases, having maternal responsibilities imposed on them (due to poverty, abandonment, or the death of a parent). The women’s relationships with their mothers are varied; some recount the love and acceptance they were given when they told their mothers about their same-sex attraction, while others recall rejection. Similarly, these narrators have varied reasons for having children, including abiding by the conventions of heterosexuality and marrying men and wanting to raise open-minded people.