Familiarly queer? Same-sex relationships and family formation

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.