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- Convenors:
-
Caroline Chautems
(University of Lausanne)
Carole Ammann (ETH Zurich)
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- Formats:
- Panel
- Mode:
- Face-to-face
- Sessions:
- Thursday 25 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
In Europe, the number and especially the visibility of queer families have increased. We invite theoretical and empirical contributions that explore the possibilities and constraints of doing and undoing queer families within structures geared towards heterosexual, cis-gender, two-parent families.
Long Abstract:
In Europe, the number and especially the visibility of queer families have increased – not least due to recent legal changes around the issues of partnership, marriage, and parenthood, as well as the regulation and access to assisted reproductive technologies. The growing number of queer families has also been reflected in increased academic research on the topic. While for a long time, the principal focus was on lesbian mothers and their children, research on GBTIQ+ parents grew recently.
In this panel, we are interested in queering reproductive justice, with a focus on queer people’s right to have children and the right to parent them in a safe and healthy environment. We welcome contributions that explore the possibilities and constraints of doing queer families. How are queer persons doing family, that is, what are their various paths to parenthood? And how do queer people parent within structures geared towards heterosexual, cis-gender, two-parent families with genetic ties to their children? We especially invite empirical and theoretical papers that address one or several of the following topics:
• Obstacles and discriminations when being and becoming queer parents
• Beauties, advantages, and strengths of doing queer family
• Undoing queer families: break-ups, dissolutions, and divorce
• Access to research participants (beyond white, cis-gender, middle-class), participatory research, feminist (queer) ethnography, and researchers’ positionalities
• Doing and undoing queer families over the life course
• Queer parents’ experiences of interactions with institutions (e.g. administration, health and perinatal care, daycare, or schools)
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 25 July, 2024, -Marcin Smietana (University of Cambridge, UK) Sonja Mackenzie (Santa Clara University) Laura Mamo (San Francisco State University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper interrogates the shared analyses of power in the tenets of Reproductive Justice and queer justice to offer a critical frame of Queer Reproductive Justice. We build on our research on LGBTQ+ families with trans children in the US, and on gay men's use of surrogacy in the UK and the US.
Paper long abstract:
This paper interrogates the shared analyses of power and social oppression in the tenets of Reproductive Justice and queer justice to offer a critical frame of Queer Reproductive Justice. It operationalizes Queer Reproductive Justice as a critical theoretical contribution to the fields of reproduction, queer theory, and critical race, indigenous, and postcolonial scholarship and praxis at a time when threats to and stratifications of reproduction are growing and held within dangerous political projects to maintain white supremacy and cisgender and hetero-normativity in global bio-economies. Following the discussion of contemporary contexts of reproduction, and Reproductive Justice scholarship as it conjoins with the ‘queer,’ we discuss two of the authors’ qualitative research projects: (1) Gender Justice research in the US that illustrates how LGBTQ+ families, including families with transgender children, struggle to achieve their right to raise families in safe and dignified conditions in school and community settings and beyond, and (2) an ethnography of gay men’s use of surrogacy to become parents in the UK and the US, which foregrounds the ways in which the right to have children is shaped by gender and sexuality norms, intersecting with social class. We suggest an operationalizing of Queer Reproductive Justice that builds on the rich history of work presented herein and that signals a dynamic continued engagement around the structural bases of queer reproduction, and queering reproductive justice.
Christiane Carri (HES-SO Valais)
Paper short abstract:
This paper will present the challenges experienced by queer parents in the rural landscape of Valais, Switzerland. Drawing from a CBPAR project titled "Capacity Building for Rainbow Families in Switzerland and Beyond," the paper examines the unique dynamics of this Alpine region.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will present the nuanced challenges experienced by queer parents in the rural landscape of Valais, Switzerland. Drawing from a community-based participatory action research project titled "Capacity Building for Rainbow Families in Switzerland and Beyond," funded by the SNSF Spark program, the paper examines the unique dynamics of this Catholic Alpine region with a population of around 344’000, characterized by bilingualism and rurality. The prevalent perception of Valais as "traditional" and resistant to change, as perpetuated by local activists and participants, sets the backdrop for the study.
The paper reflects on the challenges of conducting a community-based participatory action research project within a context that does not have an established community. It sheds light on the intricacies of establishing a community and common language and of navigating the challenges of participatory research. The primary empirical focus lies in presenting key findings that address the legal landscape, as well as the tangible experiences of discrimination faced by queer families within their villages, from local institutions and their own families. Furthermore, the role of religion emerges as a central issue influencing family and in-law relations, adding a layer of complexity for these families to navigate.
In particular, the paper zooms in on the specific hurdles posed by rural living, offering insights into the multifaceted challenges encountered by queer parents in this distinctive geographical and cultural context.
Caroline Chautems (University of Lausanne) Marta Roca Escoda (Université de Lausanne)
Paper short abstract:
In Switzerland in 2022, married lesbian couples gained access to fertility clinics. Yet, some couples may still prefer to travel abroad due to ART restrictions. Drawing on interviews with lesbian couples who accessed ART abroad, we examine disruptions and continuities in their medical care.
Paper long abstract:
On 1 July 2022, marriage became legal for same-sex couples in Switzerland, allowing married lesbian couples to benefit from ART and the recognition of co-maternity from birth. Before that, lesbian couples had to resort to reproductive travel to access ART abroad. Pre-insemination tests and treatments were conducted in Switzerland, as well as the rest of the medical follow-up after pregnancy was achieved. However, despite the legal change, lesbian couples may still prefer to travel abroad to access ART, because of restrictive Swiss regulations, some technologies such as egg donation (reception of oocytes from partner) remaining forbidden, even for married couples. In addition, childbirth and parenting culture in Switzerland remain strongly heteronormative and health providers in Switzerland are ill prepared to welcome lesbian couples, including in fertility clinics. In consequence, reproductive travels will still be preferred by some couples, while Swiss health providers have always been involved in these care trajectories, before and after the insemination abroad.
Based on in-depth interviews with Swiss lesbian couples who accessed ART abroad, and previous medical fieldworks in Switzerland, this paper delves into continuities and ruptures in their medical follow-up. How did they experience pregnancy follow-up and childbirth once back in Switzerland? What kind of collaborations have developed between health professionals abroad and in Switzerland? We will also discuss the implications of the change of law for lesbian reproduction in Switzerland, the current shortcomings in heteronormative childbirth care and how best practices developed in fertility clinics abroad should be implemented in Switzerland.
Paula Durks Cassol (University of Coimbra)
Paper short abstract:
Portugal's historical negative stance on transgender reproductive rights had a positive shift with the Gender Self-Determination Law. Through participatory action research and the Photovoice method, the paper identifies current obstacles faced by trans people in realizing their reproductive choices.
Paper long abstract:
The Portuguese state, until recently, portrayed the association of identity of transgender individuals and their reproductive rights in a negative light, imposing sterilization requirements and denying gender identity rights to transgender parents. The Gender Self-Determination Law from 2018 marked a shift towards a more affirmative perspective on trans reproductive rights, allowing for positive decision-making regarding reproductive choices. Applying a Queer Reproductive Justice lens to highlight the systematic inequality affecting reproductive choices in the lives of transgender individuals, this paper problematizes the access (or lack of it) to reproductive healthcare for trans people in Portugal nowadays. Through participatory action and art-based research, this paper relies on the Photovoice method to answer the question: what are the obstacles and discriminations faced by trans people interacting with healthcare institutions in Portugal while trying to materialize their reproductive choices? Utilizing photography and engaging in collaborative efforts within the transgender community, this work wants to problematize the persistence of the medico-legal paradigm by asking how reproductive justice can contribute or not to account, in a more comprehensive way, transgender people's access to reproductive health. This research sheds light on the pressing issues surrounding transgender reproductive rights in Portugal, emphasizing the transformative potential of the Gender Self-Determination Law, while underscoring the urgent need for proactive policymaking and societal awareness to address the challenges faced by the trans community in realizing their reproductive choices and human rights.
Olga Doletskaya (University College London)
Paper short abstract:
Queer parents in Russia have to navigate the tension between disclosing and documenting their families, and concealing their family structure for the safety of their children. I explore how queer families do display work in various medical settings in an authoritarian and queerphobic context.
Paper long abstract:
In the past decade, Russia has become an increasingly hostile place for its LGBTQ+ citizens, as Putin’s war on queerness continues. Parents are particularly vulnerable to Russia’s anti-queer legislation, as they constantly risk their children being relinquished by the state for ‘propagating non-traditional sexual relations to minors’ as per the ‘anti-LGBTQ propaganda’ law of 2013. Yet, queer families continue to have and raise children: adopt, access assisted reproduction and surrogacy, and come together to co-parent. This paper is part of an anthropological study of Russian LGBTQ+ parents and their families, which follows 25 families from across the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
In this paper, I explore how parents navigate displaying and documenting their families in the healthcare context: assisted reproduction clinics, surrogacy agencies, prenatal care and obstetrics, labour and delivery, and paediatric care. As healthcare bureaucracy is abundant in Russia, I want to focus on the tensions between documenting the family structure, advocating for equal treatment, and the desire to stay hidden for safety reasons. I will argue that queer families fight hard to display a version of their family; simultaneously resisting the hegemonic hetero-patriarchal ideas of who qualifies as parents, and concealing some parts of the family that might be too unconventional for the given institutional site. I seek to explore which strategies they choose to document, authenticate and legitimise their parental status while simultaneously presenting a carefully crafted family narrative.
Tobias Jørgensen (Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen)
Paper short abstract:
Based on qualitative interviews among queer people, the study explores the negotiation of queer kinship within normative state structures of family making when engaged in family making through assisted reproduction. It shows how this creates reproductive situations of both possibility and violence.
Paper long abstract:
This qualitative study explores the experiences of family making processes among queer people in Denmark in the context of changing legislation on parental rights and access to assisted reproduction, that offer new opportunities for queer people engaged in family making. Based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with 25 trans*, non-binary, and genderqueer people, as well as homosexual men, the study explores how queer individuals navigate family making processes and form queer families within the specific structural conditions of assisted reproduction and legal parental rights landscapes in Denmark today. Drawing on theorizations of queer kinship and (kin)coherence, the analysis shows how queer kinship is performed within state-funded normative structures of having children and how this results in queer kinship as a site of both possibility and violence, of both joy and grief. The analysis illustrates that participants must negotiate their queer kinship bonds in interactions with welfare and legal institutions to become socially coherent in the eyes of the institutions making access to family formation possible. The study finds practices of resistance, ’passing’ as hetero- or homonormative, and at times by-passing the involvement of the state as they seek to ‘do’ queer families, embodying both the exclusion and inclusion of queer kinship in state logics of reproduction. We discuss how these strategies are employed by participants simultaneously as a means of insisting on the legitimacy and visibility of queer bodies and kinship ties as well as necessary survival strategies to minimize the harmful interactions experienced in family making processes.
Prauthois Lus (Université Paris-Dauphine PSL (IRISSO) and Sciences Po Paris (CSO))
Paper short abstract:
Some male couples living in France go abroad to have access to surrogacy because it is forbidden in France. In spite of the opening of mariage and adoption for same-sex couples in 2013, they have been facing ostacles to be legally recognized as two fathers. How have they been dealing with it?
Paper long abstract:
Some couples of men living in France have been traveling abroad to get access to surrogacy because it is forbidden there over the last ten years. Coming back in France, trying to have legal rights for both fathers can become a challenge. This paper will show how these men have been facing obstacles to legal recognition since 2013, when marriage and adoption became accessible to same-sex couples in France. It is based on an empirical research conducted between 2017 and 2021 for a sociological thesis about the legal recognition of all kinds of same-sex families in France. It will focus on materials coming from interviews with 17 gay or bisexual fathers, 25 attorneys and 26 prosecutors and judges, observations of trials, and more than a hundred judiciary cases.
The road to become a father is already paved of many obstacles for male couples living in France: they have to legitimate their desire to be a father despite their homo/bisexuality and the way they choose to do it despite the ban on surrogacy and its stigmatization. Once they become fathers, they face a legal landscape which is very uncertain because of the many changes in French jurisprudence that took place since 2013. However, their attorneys can help them pick the right procedure for them according to their desire to go as fast and easy as possible or to try to challenge the jurisprudence to improve reproductive rights for all couples who use surrogacy.
Jung Chen (University of Cambridge)
Paper short abstract:
Revisiting the concept of ‘chosen families’ that Kath Weston noteworthily proposed, this research examines how Taiwanese gay fathers created relatedness within and beyond the biogenetic ties and how the family-like queer community facilitated their agency to pursue parenthood.
Paper long abstract:
Taiwan was the first country to legalise same-sex marriage in Asia in 2019; however, the reproductive rights for LGBTQ+ people are yet to come. The only feasible way for gay men to conceive children with biological ties is by accessing transnational assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) and surrogacy. Encountering multiple reproductive constraints—legal restrictions on ARTs and the lack of support and recognition from the state and society—gay men with reproductive aspirations sought solidarity either from their families-of-origin or the LGBTQ+ parent community to obtain information and plan their cross-border reproductive travels. Revisiting the concept of ‘chosen families’ that Kath Weston noteworthily proposed, this research examines how Taiwanese gay fathers created relatedness within and beyond the biogenetic ties and how the family-like queer community facilitated their agency to pursue parenthood. The data came from interviews with 53 gay fathers and fathers-to-be and 8-month participant observation with the LGBTQ+ parent community. Centring on the themes of familial tensions and trust building, I argue that: (1) The strained relationships and negotiations between gay men and their families-of-origin reflected the transitioning public attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people. (2) The queer alliance complemented prospective gay fathers’ support on their way towards fatherhood, provided trusty connections in heteronormative society, and enabled them to envision a future of realising reproductive justice for all—regardless of sexuality, gender, and nationality. Conclusively, I present a comprehensive understanding of gay fathers’ reproduction and relatedness-making through solidarity-building, mutual support, and trust within and beyond the biogenetic connections.
Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz (University of Iowa) Shui-yin Sharon Yam (University of Kentucky)
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyzes the stories that trans and gender nonconforming parents tell about their reproductive experiences. Drawing on memoirs, podcasts, and documentaries, we explore how these storytellers utilize distinct rhetorical strategies in order to navigate dominant configurations of kin.
Paper long abstract:
Focusing on the third reproductive justice pillar on the right to parent in a safe environment, this paper analyzes the stories that trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) parents share publicly about their reproductive and family-making experiences. Our archive includes memoirs, documentaries, and podcasts circulating widely in the US, the UK, and Canada–while some target dominant mainstream audiences, others are made by and for the TGNC community. Using Sharon Yam’s “deliberative empathy” and Aja Martinez’s “counterstory” as analytical frameworks, we engage our primary source archive, exploring how TGNC storytellers utilize distinct rhetorical strategies in order to address specific audiences and exigencies. While some TGNC narrative impulses are deeply (and understandably) assimilatory in nature, drawing on strategies that normalize TGNC reproduction and families to claim social and political inclusion, so too do these narratives contain significant moments of resistance, challenge, and critique.
We demonstrate that in addition to calling for state recognition and/or inclusion grounded in a human rights framework, TGNC storytellers adopt strategies of deliberative empathy to prompt the possibility of political solidarity with mainstream audiences and embrace counterstory to challenge and rewrite dominant configurations of kin. Not only is this the necessary survival work of making TGNC lives and families visible as lives that matter, but it is also the point of departure for imagining a future rooted in reproductive justice.
Muriel Degen (University Basel)
Paper short abstract:
This paper focuses on queer mothers* and fathers* living in shared multi-local parenthoods. Case studies of Switzerland reveal how they negotiate und shape their parental roles beyond heteronormative scripts and how they cope with the lack of legal protection of their family arrangements.
Paper long abstract:
This paper focuses on how queer mothers* and fathers* arrange shared parenthood and pursue their everyday family life across households. In my PhD I study the practices and self-perceptions of parents and children in multilocal contexts. By taking an in-depth look, interviews with children aged 3-12 years and their family members are combined with ethnographic oriented approaches such as go-alongs, photographs and drawings.
Based on the case studies, I delineate two tropes that are crucial to understand "Doing family" in queer settings:
1. Paths to queer parenthood: As parents describe, future family life, home arrangements, parenting ideas, etc. are sometimes negotiated long before the birth of a child and laid down in agreements. Lacking legal protection, multi-parent queer families find themselves in a vulnerable status, which is significant to them and result in corresponding coping strategies.
2. Parental roles in queer multi-parent families: Parenthood with multiple partners requires a negotiation of family roles for which conventional, heternormative notions of motherhood and fatherhood are not per se applicable. Social parents in particular tend to develop new characteristics of care relationships to children for which there is no script so far.
Queer families reveal how family and parenthood can be shaped and done beyond heteronormativity and bisexuality. They open up new possibilities to reflect on care relationships and intimacy and unfold emancipatory potentials to challenge or irritate established family norms.