‘Beautiful but tough terrain’: the uneasy geographies of same-sex parenting

Abstract

To date, many geographical analyses on and around family have relied on heteronormative social constructions and expectations of parenting within a nuclear family. There is, thus, considerable scope to investigate the geographies of those who are parenting outside heteronormative relationships; first to broaden this relatively limited understanding of contemporary geographies of family and, second, to recognise how some families must actively negotiate their ‘fit’ into material and symbolic space, primarily shaped for and by heterosexual parented families. Drawing on a research project that examined geographies of parenting from the perspective of 19 female same-sex parented families, this paper focuses on some of the ways these families negotiate their ‘fit’ (or otherwise) into spaces of parenting, and how such negotiations can be complex, even awkward. Focusing on Australian families and family geographies, this paper also shows how recent shifts in federal and state policy and legislation on families and parenting impact these ‘uneasy’ geographies of those parenting within same-sex relationships, adding complexity to already-challenging situations concerning the status and recognition of same-sex parented families.

Keywords:

• parenting
• same-sex relationships
• uneasy geographies
• policy and legislation

Acknowledgements

My thanks to the research participants, the reviewers, and the editors

Notes

The lack of census data on lesbian and gay family lives is beginning to be addressed, at least in the Australian context. While Australian censuses since 1996 (2001 and 2006) have provided an opportunity for cohabiting same-sex couples to report their de facto partnership status via a question on the relationship between household members and the inclusion of a non-gender-specific de-facto partner option, until recently there had been no way of knowing the number of same-sex family households. In 2009, however, a map depicting the distribution of same-sex couple family households across Australia based on the 2006 census was compiled and distributed (Gorman-Murray et al. 2010).

My thanks to Almack (2008) for letting me borrow her project's title.

Aside from individual participants self-selecting as a woman parenting with another woman, the age of the child was the only requirement for participation. The decision not to include families with school-aged children in this particular project was made very early on, for both ethical and practical reasons, including attending to the privacy and protection of older children who spend a lot more time outside the family home space; as well as the idea that families with school-aged children face a whole range of additional issues regarding ‘difference’ and ‘othering’, and to do full justice to this would have taken the project well beyond its scope.

The Commonwealth of Australia comprises six states and two territories: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory.

See www.comlaw.gov.au

Altruistic surrogacy, where you locate a person to carry your child and there is no payment beyond medical expenses and other out-pocket costs, is permitted in Australia.

Clause 17 in the Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2007 allows donors to nominate classes of people to whom their sperm or eggs may not be given.