Seahorse Dads: Theorizing Gender and Parenting Beyond the Binary

Abstract

This paper expands existing family theories to better account for the experiences of transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people who become parents through pregnancy, often referred to as seahorse dads. Although queer family scholarship has challenged binary understandings of gender within families, existing theories have yet to focus on how TGNC people dynamically engage with gender through parenting across the life course. Drawing from queer, gender, and life course perspectives, we introduce theoretical expansions that center the reciprocal, time-sensitive relationship between gender expression and parenthood. We explore how seahorse dads may navigate caregiving roles, disrupt cisnormative assumptions, and reshape family relationships through complex negotiations of identity, transition, and timing. By integrating these insights, we propose a more inclusive framework for understanding TGNC parenthood, emphasizing the importance of theorizing parenthood beyond binary constructs and recognizing the unique experiences of seahorse dads within family science.