Social work professionals' social representations on sexual diversity: A contribution to the debate on family, adoption, and diversity in terms of social intervention

Sexual diversity is a challenging issue. The legal journey has been long and narrow but now this topic has been included in the political agenda, some legal sentences have recognized certain rights to same-sex couples, and anti-sexual discrimination acts have been approved. However, in terms of social representations, attitudes and prejudices against sexual diversity the advances have been scarce. And although there have been some debates about tolerance, diversity recognition and the like, some sociopolitical spaces are still closed to non-heterosexual persons. One of these instances is the family. This article presents some reflections on the professional performance of social workers on sexual diversity: their representations, their ideal of family, and their interventions in family issues. It is also an invitation to transcend traditional views with approaches such as the Queer Theory, known as an innovative perspective that allows considering new family typologies.