Naslov
“Why is it that here we can be a family, and there we cannot?” How Wider Socio-Institutional Frameworks Shape Experiences of LGB Parenting

Autori
Vučković Juroš, Tanja

Izvornik
Revija za sociologiju (0350-154X) 49 (2019), 2; 205-229

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
LGB parenting ; Central and Eastern Europe ; migrants ; family ; acceptance of same-sex families ; socio-institutional differences

Sažetak
Legal status and social acceptance of families of same-sex partners vary to an astonishing degree, even within the EU. These differences are sharply reflected in lives of LGB migrants from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) residing in countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands, where same-sex partners can marry, can access adoption and assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and can acquire legal co-parenting rights. For this group, every visit to a CEE country of origin with a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and limited or no access to adoption, ART or co-parenting rights, highlights the societal and institutional vulnerability of their families. Based on in-depth interviews with six LGB migrants from restrictive CEE countries who are raising children with a same-sex partner in Belgium and the Netherlands, this study analysed how differences in socio-institutional contexts shape experiences of LGB parents related to formation, definition, recognition and acceptance of their families. The findings highlight how the restrictive legal and institutional frameworks not only exclude LGB individuals from full citizenship, but they also provide support for individual-level discrimination of non-heterosexual families. In contrast, inclusive frameworks allow LGB individuals to realize life and family trajectories that are already accessible to others in society, and they also discourage the expression of individual prejudice. Therefore, the study concludes that the only way to ensure full equality and to protect LGB individuals and their children from stigmatization is to create a fully inclusive socio-institutional context for non-heterosexual families in which individual prejudice is no longer implicitly supported.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Sociologija, Rodni studiji

POVEZANOST RADA