Between families and law in Axel Honneth: the paradigmatic case of families formed by lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people, and transsexuals

Abstract

This article aims to explore some of the relationships that cross two fields of social life that Axel Honneth discusses in Freedom’s Right – families and law. To this end, makes use of a normative reconstruction, which allows to trace the general development of functionally differentiated spheres and to observe the relationships between these spheres which impact the internal realization of its normative promises. The families headed by lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transvestites and transsexuals appear here as indicators of family relationships specialization and democratization. They also appear as a paradigmatic case of the relationships between families and law.