The heterosexual family ideal and its limitations for bi-national same-sex family formations

Abstract

In recent decades there has been marked increase in socio-legal right for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQI) people, one high profile advance is the legalisation of same-sex marriage, especially in the Global North. Same-sex partnerships and marriage have also been recognised in immigration rules. However, using the example of bi-national same-sex partnership and immigration rules in the United Kingdom (UK), this chapter explores how the seemingly equal provision for both heterosexual and same-sex partnerships in fact limits which families are seen as legitimate and therefore granted entry and citizenship rights. This chapter explores how family configurations that fall outside of cisheteronormativity kinship and family frames are invisible within immigration legal frameworks.