ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some forms of family of choice, and considers the possibility of affirming and advocating for family of choice in one's work–family balance endeavors. It examines delineating between family of choice, close friendships, and community. People may closet their family of choice from the workplace out of concern that co-workers and managers will think they are fraudulently seeking accommodation. The term "fictive kin" emerges frequently in research examining the family dynamics of racial minorities, and African-American families in inner cities in particular. Supplemental family of choice can take a number of different forms including LGBTQ networks. By contrast, LGBTQ communities form families of choice that offer mutual support, especially amid experiences of discrimination and/or rejection from traditionally defined family members. Families with one or more LGBTQ working adults, and families that resist traditionally gendered distributions of labor, are still traditional families but with a component that renders them uncharacteristic.
