Citizenship across generations: struggles around heteronormativities

Abstract

This article argues for the importance of attention to intergenerational relations in understanding the conditions for access to citizenship rights and recognition for non-heterosexual people. The case of Italy, where individual entitlements and responsibilities are largely structured around intergenerational dependence, underlines the salience of intergenerational relations in relation to sexual citizenship. Drawing on a study of the families of origin of self-identified young gay men and lesbians carried out in Italy, this article explores how access to citizenship rights and the construction of the identities that can claim recognition are mediated by processes of mutual disclosure and negotiation within families. Beyond a shared notion of family ties as defined by unconditional love, a diversity of narratives are detected, linked to differences in gender, class and family cultures. It is especially when family narratives are informed by the middle-class ideology of the democratic family as a space for the development of authentic selves that access to rights becomes conditional upon compliance with the obligations of a ‘good child’, and the conditions for the reproduction of heteronormative citizenship are set.

Keywords::

• sexual citizenship
• intergenerational relations
• family
• heteronormativity
• Italy

Notes

^1. Some scholars have questioned the notion of intimate citizenship as a citizenship claim, arguing that it should be more properly conceived as a form of negative liberty (Richardson and Turner 2001).

^2. For a comprehensive discussion, see Savin-Williams (2001).

^3. A more nuanced picture is proposed in Broad et al. (2004).

^4. Some contributions that take account of the parents' perspective come from psychology (Pietrantoni 1998) and from a pilot socio-psychological research project regarding three families (Bertone et al.2003, Cappotto 2007).

^5. The research was part of the EU Daphne project “Family matters. Supporting families to prevent violence against gay and lesbian youth”, which was coordinated by the University of East Piedmont (Italy), in cooperation with the organisations of family members of gay and lesbian people in Italy (AGEDO), Catalonia, Spain (AMPGIL, Associació de Pares i Mares de Gais i Lesbianes) and the UK (Fflag, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).

^6. For more information about methodology, see Bertone and Franchi (2008). As an initial exploration of a new field, in line with the identity of the parents' organisation whose cooperation was crucial to the success of the study, research was limited to parents of children declaring gay and lesbian identities.

^7. In the survey which was part of the Family Matters research, 80% of the parents interviewed believed that homosexuals are ‘born that way’.