engleski

Queering the white picket fence: a social justice take on heteronormative parenting

This paper aims to address LGBTIQ parenting issues from the critical pedagogical perspective. The first step in this inquiry is to detect the weak points of dominant LGBTIQ advocating discourse, which, despite good intentions, often constructs a fragmental identity that does not include parenting as its integral part. This fragmented notion of identity stems from the fact that in many western countries the most important struggles concerning the recognition of LGBTIQ rights take part dominantly in human rights and political arenas. Although these approaches have resulted in the improvement of sexual minorities’ legislation and their increased visibility in the society, this progress hasn’t been extended to all domains of life. LGBTIQ parenting appears to be the most controversial aspect of this grey area, persisting as a minority privilege within the community and thus resulting in hierarchical positioning among its’ members. Looking at the Croatian context, the above described state of affairs can be recognized in the discrepancy between different laws. The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia has defined marriage as a union between man and woman since the 2013 right-wing referendum initiative, while the lower level laws continue to be improved in order to promote equal rights and treatment. However, these laws do not open the possibility for a same-sex couple to ground a family. Despite the legislation as well as exclusivist hopes of the conservative proponents of an ideal type of family (two married parents of opposite sexes with their biological children living in a house surrounded by a white picket fence), these guerilla families do exist and actively challenge the heteronormative parenting matrix. In many ways being an act of resistance, their living practice is nevertheless burdened by the politics of assimilation and gradual disclosure in public spaces. From the pedagogical perspective, balancing between these polarities opens up several intriguing research questions. In this paper we will address those which are most itchy in our social justice oriented academic pursuit. The first set of questions will address LGBTIQ parenting narratives of the families included in our research with special emphasis on everyday family dynamics, relations between different family members, child-rearing practices, parental values and differences in the positioning of the parental authority with regard to presence/absence of biological ties to the child. In exploring these narratives we will employ the intersectional framework in order to avoid reducing their parental identity to their sexual identity and to observe their parental identity in its interconnectedness with other identity dimensions (class, nationality, religion, age, etc.) and sites of oppression. The second set of questions will explore the included families’ relations with significant others and the broader social context, especially in terms of perceived emotional, financial and child-care support. The third set of questions will address different parental identity negotiating techniques in relation to educational institutions and the experienced level of support among teachers, school leadership and parents. In addressing these questions we will apply qualitative research methods (semi-structured interviews and solicited diary analysis) on a small number of families. This being the first research of this type conducted in Croatia, we hope to set the base for future exploration of this in many ways still controversial theme.

LGBTIQ parenting; multiple identities; critical pedagogical perspective; social justice

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