1 Researching Gay and Lesbian Parented Families’ Travel Choices: Methodological and Ethical Challenges Author: Rodrigo Lucena Email: rldm10@brighton.ac.uk Introduction This paper discusses some of the methodological and ethical challenges I have encountered in my on-going PhD project about the travel choices of families parented by lesbians, gay men and bisexuals (LGB). The PhD study upon which this paper is based aims to contribute to an understanding of the forces that drive LGB parented families to go on holiday and the decision- making processes they undertake when doing so. It also looks into the interplay between the parents’ sexuality and family travel choices as well as t he mechanisms these families use to navigate the heteronormativity that characterises most public spaces. While homophobia still affects the lives of many LGB people worldwide, recent enhanced legal protection has led to a greater recognition and increased social acceptance of same-sex parented families, especially in Western countries (IGLA 2014). Akin to all families, they also go on holiday and have tourism-related experiences. Yet, their perspectives have been overlooked by tourism scholarship, which has predominantly focused on heteronormative models of families based on the trinomial ‘mother – father – children’ (Yeoman et al. 2012; Hughes and Southall 2012). In giving voice to these families, not only does my PhD project place them at the centre of tourism research but it also contributes to challenge the heteronormative assumptions that dominate tourism-related studies. Further, it adds to knowledge about the family as a social arrangement thereby stretching the traditional parameters that define it. The PhD process, however, has not been without its challenges. For instance, recruiting participants has proven a complex task. Moreover, the difficulties that often involve studies on sexuality have been compounded with those associated with researching children and families. Against this background, this paper provides a two-fold contribution to the conference’s