When ‘But they’re your family’ isn’t reason enough to stay

“She’s your mom.” “They’re your family.” “Blood is thicker than water.” For generations, these familiar idioms have illustrated what Rin Reczek and Emma Bosley-Smith, co-authors of the 2022 book “Families We Keep: LGBTQ People and Their Enduring Bonds with Parents” (NYU Press), term compulsory kinship: the social expectation that biological and legal family ties must be preserved at all costs.