The Right to a Privilege? Homonormativity and the Recognition of Same-Sex Couples in Europe

The Council of Europe (CoE) and its judicial body, the European Court of Human Rights, are at the forefront of the debate for the redefinition of the notion of ‘family’ in relation to the inclusion of same-sex couples. The recent jurisprudence has demonstrated a change in the Court’s approach to the question of what counts as a family, by terms of Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This much-anticipated development, nonetheless, begs the question of how the ‘right to marry and found a family’ might prove to be a privilege rather than a right. This article tries to shed light on the contradictions underpinning the expansion of the concept of family in the context of the CoE, suggesting the existence of a conflation of both heteronormative and homonormative narratives of kinship in the construction of a notion of the ‘family’ that encompasses same-sex couples

Unsettling lesbian motherhood: Critical reflections over a generation (1990-2015)

This article explores how advancements in equality rights combine with attitudinal changes in UK society and LGBTQ communities to impact on the experience of lesbian mothers over a generation. The author reflects on ordinary moments where sexuality and relationships become meaningful and situate emotions at the heart of analytical enquiry because it is through emotional interactions that micro–macro networks of relations intersect. Autobiography is combined with original data from empirical research to provide analytical entry points, which aims to advance understanding and also facilitate reflection on how we understand and come to know queer parenthood. Whilst there are now many routes into lesbian motherhood and the stigma of queer kinship is diminishing, this article demonstrates the need to problematize the prevailing narratives of coupledom that are emerging and tease apart the conflation of temporal progression, progressive rights and narratives of progress

Polyamorous Families – Parenting Practice, Stigma and Social Regulation

As a response to the greater visibility of alternative relationship and family forms, polyamory (i.e. the practice of consensual multi-partner relationships) has recently moved to the centre of public media attention. Questions of polyamory have emerged as a major concern within law, social policy, family sociology, gender and sexuality studies. Yet certain core issues have remained underexplored. This includes the distinctive nature of polyamorous intimacy, the structure of poly household formations and the dynamics of care work within poly families. In particular, poly parenting has been subject to tabooisation and scandalisation. Governing bodies, the judiciary and educational institutions have remained largely ignorant of polyamorous relationships. Research documents the exclusions of poly families (and individuals) from access to legal provisions and protections and their common discrimination in the courts, namely in custody cases. It further highlights the discrimination of polyidentified adolescents in school and college settings and the predicament that poly families face when interacting with public institutions (including schools and kindergardens). Insights into parenting practices and the organisation of childcare is vital for understanding the transformative potential of polyamorous ways of relating. It is also important for challenging the common demonisation and stigmatisation of polyamory within conservative family politics that perceives polyamory exclusively from a harm perspective. This paper will review and critically analyse existing research on poly parenting focussing on three dimensions: (a) parenting practices, (b) social and legal discrimination, and (c) parental response to stigmatisation. The paper argues for a stronger incorporation of queer perspectives within the guiding frameworks of research into parenting in consensually non-monogamous and polyamorous relationships to highlight the transformative potential of the ‘queer bonds’ that sustain many of these practices

What First, What Later? Patterns in the Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partners in European Countries

Among the 21 European countries surveyed for the LawsAndFamilies Database (www.lawsandfamilies.eu), there is a clear trend (fortified by European law) of offering same-sex couples the opportunity to formalise their relationship as marriage and/or as registered partnership, and of attaching more and more rights and responsibilities to the informal cohabitation, the registered partnership and/or the civil marriage of two people of the same sex. This chapter focusses on the timing of all these changes. In a five periods analysis, it establishes whether major partnership rights were extended to same-sex couples at the time of the introduction of registered partnership, or before, or at the time of the opening up of marriage, or between those two moments, or after the opening up of marriage. Thereby, and by calculating the same-sex legal recognition consensus among the countries surveyed for each of 26 selected rights, it finds nine typical sequences: Attitudes before rights; Rights before status; Bad-times rights before good-times rights; Responsibilities before benefits; Individual partner rights before couple rights; Partnership before marriage; Immigration rights among the first to be gained; Parenting rights among the last to be gained; Legal recognition before social legitimacy.Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)320116Effective Protection of Fundamental Rights in a pluralist worl

Sex Laws and Sexuality Rights in Comparative and Global Perspectives

This article seeks to explain the emergence of a new field of study oriented toward sex laws and sexuality rights in comparative and global perspectives. We argue that this field comes into focus because of three changes in the social context: the introductions of sexuality into sex, of human rights into national laws, and of global into comparative perspectives. Each turn of the social kaleidoscope generates new objects of and rationales for scholarly analysis, along with new ways and reasons to think about existing objects of analysis. Together, these contextual changes inaugurate the global study of sexuality rights and invigorate the comparative study of sex laws. Theoretical shifts accompany the empirical developments. Phenomenological approaches arise alongside their realist counterparts. The consolidation of this new field of study is important not only on academic grounds: It suggests the dynamics of a wider field of policy and practice. © 2013 by Annual Reviews