“Latinos Have a Stronger Attachment to the Family”: Latinx Fathers’ Acceptance of Their Sexual Minority Children

Parental acceptance is critical to the well-being of sexual minority youth, yet little research has been conducted with fathers, or with Latinx parents of sexual minorities. Understanding Latinx fathers’ cultural context and how it operates to facilitate or challenge acceptance of their sexual minority child could contribute new knowledge regarding Latinx culture, Latinx families, and intersectionality of identities to enrich clinical work and future research. This manuscript reports on a phenomenological study of a United States (U.S.) sample of Latinx fathers with a gay and/or lesbian child. Qualitative analysis yielded five main themes: (a) cultural values facilitating acceptance, (b) cultural values interfering with acceptance, (c) specific behaviors facilitating acceptance, (d) validation of intersectionality, and (e) benefits of acceptance. Fathers were involved in the lives of their sexual minority children and placed a priority on their membership in the family above cultural prescriptions of sexual identity, yet were open about the struggle inherent in their children’s sexual identity. Fathers’ love, investment, and struggle paid off in the form of strong bonds. Findings provide important context to promote practitioners’ cultural competence, provide potential implications for cultural adaptations, and suggest areas for future research exploring the intersectionality of ethnicity and sexual identity

Prune belly syndrome: clinicopathologic study of 29 cases.

The clinical course and the pathologic features of 29 patients with the prune belly syndrome (PBS) are reviewed. There were 26 males and 3 females. In addition to the classical triad of deficient abdominal musculature, urinary tract abnormalities, and cryptorchidism, a broader spectrum of other defects was found including musculoskeletal (58\%) and gastrointestinal (31\%) abnormalities. Genital anomalies were present in all three female patients. Many of these defects may be inapparent at birth, but are the cause of morbidity and mortality later in life. Severe urinary tract maldevelopment and pulmonary hypoplasia as part of the oligohydramnios syndrome was the most common cause of perinatal deaths. In these patients, major portions of the renal parenchyma were dysplastic, but in survivors, renal dysplasia, when present, was minor by comparison, and affected less than 1/3 of the parenchyma. Although several questions remain unanswered, we believe that the PBS results from the effect of one or more teratogenic agents on the somatic mesoderm, producing inappropriate mesenchymal development and inadequate mesenchymal-epithelial interactions that lead to abnormal development and dilatation of some of its derivatives (abdominal muscles, ureter, bladder, prostate, urethra, and gubernaculum). Although abnormalities in derivatives of the intermediate mesoderm (kidney) may also be produced by the injurious agent(s), they are more likely a result of urinary obstruction. Abnormalities in other organs and systems are the consequence of oligohydramnios