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Familiarly Queer? Same-Sex Relationships and Family Formation

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Family Formation in 21st Century Australia

Abstract

Over the past 10 years in many Australian states and territories, same-sex couple and parenting relationships have become more visible and gained legal recognition. These developments have ensued from gay and lesbian community activism and the increasing social acceptability of same-sex couple relationships. In this chapter same-sex relationships and family formation practices are situated within debates about the distinctiveness as opposed to the ‘assimilationist’ tendencies of these relationships. Relational and family formation patterns within the Australian same-sex attracted communities are discussed in depth, as documented in recent Australian surveys and qualitative studies of same-sex attracted parenting and the personal lives of same-sex attracted transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Australians. These sources confirm the popularity but by no means ubiquity of cohabiting couple and couple-based parenting relationships, and mixed feelings about the extent to which marriage rights are necessary. I argue it is important not to lose sight of the ways in which same-sex attracted Australians organize their personal lives beyond the couple and nuclear family model that marriage assumes, and to retain other legal possibilities beyond marriage for the recognition of the diverse relational forms that exist.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Language used to describe ‘non-heterosexual’ families and relationships is evolving, and there is no consensus on correct terminology (see Weeks et al. 2001; Dempsey 2012a; Brown 2008; du Chesne and Bradley 2007). The term ‘same-sex attracted’ is used in this chapter in recognition of the fact that ‘lesbian’ and ‘gay’ are not universally used as self-descriptors by people who have same-sex relationships. The complex connection between sexual attraction, sexual behavior and a more overarching sense of sexual identity has long been noted in sexuality surveys since Alfred Kinsey’s formative work in US in the 1940s, including studies conducted in Australia (Smith et al. 2003; Dempsey et al. 2001). Some Australian same-sex attracted adults (indications are, a small minority) may consider themselves ‘bisexual’ or ‘queer’ rather than ‘lesbian’ or ‘gay’ or use other identifiers (see Leonard et al. 2012; Power et al. 2010, 2012). Some of the studies of the personal lives of same-sex attracted adults discussed in this chapter also included transgender and intersex participants. ‘Transgender’ can refer to people who have had hormone treatment or surgery to reconstruct their bodies in order to conform to the sex and gender they identify with. It can also refer to those whose appearance, comportment and self-identification transgresses usual binary sex and gender categories in less permanent fashion (see Hines 2006; Couch et al. 2007). By contrast, “intersex” is a term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with ambiguous reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male. For example, a person might appear to be male but has mostly female internal anatomy, or vice versa (see Intersex Society of North America 2013).

  2. 2.

    Familial rights yet to be extended to same-sex attracted Australians include the right to adopt children or to marry. Gay men becoming parents through overseas surrogacy also face complex legal impediments to legal recognition of their parenthood in all Australian states.

  3. 3.

    The Not So Private Lives online survey was conducted by researchers in the School of Psychology at The University of Queensland, Australia. It aimed to add to knowledge of the personal lives of sexual minorities in Australia. Themes covered by survey questions included: the timing of disclosure of same-sex attractions; preferred relationship recognition; same-sex attracted individuals’ perceptions of how others value their relationships relative to different-sex relationships and the role of mainstream acceptance in relation to psychological well-being.

  4. 4.

    PL2 participants were aged between 16 and 89 years (mean age of 38), with 48 % identifying as female, 44 % as male, 4 % as transgender and over 3 % preferring another term to describe their sex/gender. Just over 42 % identified as “gay”, 30 % identified as “lesbian” and 12 % as “bisexual”. Participants came from all Australian states and territories in numbers roughly proportionate to the population. They were well educated compared to the Australian population and also more likely to be employed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health, Arts and Design, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia

    Deborah Dempsey

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  1. Deborah Dempsey
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Correspondence to Deborah Dempsey .

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  1. School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Genevieve Heard

  2. School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Dharmalingam Arunachalam

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Dempsey, D. (2015). Familiarly Queer? Same-Sex Relationships and Family Formation. In: Heard, G., Arunachalam, D. (eds) Family Formation in 21st Century Australia. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9279-0_11

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