Narratives of demographic shifts overlook how societal changes shape the family trajectories of sexual minorities. Using sequence analysis, we describe how partnering and parenthood evolve over the life course of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) women and men in the United Kingdom (N = 455) and how the types of these family trajectories changed across two birth cohorts (born before 1965 and in 1965–1979). We find five distinct trajectories between ages 18 and 40, wherein two thirds of the sample belonged to a family trajectory that did not involve living with children. Partnership-centered trajectories became more common across cohorts, and this increase came at the expense of trajectories characterized by singlehood among gay men and lesbian women. However, parenthood trajectories became less common among all LGB groups. Furthermore, family trajectories became more complex across cohorts, including more transitions, which coincides with trends in the general population. Yet we also find that family trajectories became less diverse among lesbian women and bisexual men, in contrast to the trend among gay men and the general population. The results demonstrate the dynamic, complex, and diverse nature of LGB individuals' family lives and why existing narratives of family-related demographic change should explicitly consider sexual minorities in demographic narratives.

中文翻译：

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性取向和人口变化：记录 LGB 人口的家庭形成轨迹和群体变化

关于人口变化的叙述忽视了社会变化如何塑造性少数群体的家庭轨迹。通过序列分析，我们描述了英国女同性恋、男同性恋和双性恋 (LGB) 女性和男性 ( N = 455) 的伴侣关系和为人父母身份如何在生命历程中演变，以及这些家庭轨迹的类型如何在两个出生群体中发生 变化（1965 年之前和 1965 年至 1979 年出生）。我们发现 18 岁至 40 岁之间有 5 个不同的轨迹，其中三分之二的样本属于不涉及与孩子一起生活的家庭轨迹。以伴侣为中心的轨迹在群体中变得更加普遍，而这种增长是以男同性恋和女同性恋以单身为特征的轨迹为代价的。然而，在所有 LGB 群体中，为人父母的轨迹变得越来越不常见。此外，不同群体的家庭轨迹变得更加复杂，包括更多的转变，这与总人口的趋势一致。然而我们还发现，女同性恋和双性恋男性的家庭轨迹变得不那么多样化，这与男同性恋和一般人群的趋势形成鲜明对比。结果表明，LGB 个体的家庭生活具有动态、复杂和多样化的性质，以及为什么现有的与家庭相关的人口变化叙述应在人口叙述中明确考虑性少数群体。