Transformative power of same-sex marriage and non-heterosexual reproductivity. How parents of GLB offspring adjust to their marriage and children

Abstract

One of the most notable gaps in the growing field examining parents' adjustments to their offspring's nonheterosexuality concerns parents' responses to same-sex marriage and (grand)children from nonheterosexual relationships. Informed both by the life stories of gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) migrants who are married or raising children with a same-sex partner in Belgium and the Netherlands and by the accounts of their parents living in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries with a constitutional protection of heterosexual marriage, this study addresses this gap. It also takes the inquiry a step further by situating it within the framework of contrasting normative expectations. This approach identifies how parents' responses and disclosures, though firmly situated in the context of their homonegative CEE environments, also negotiate new expectations formed by their GLB offspring in GLB-friendly Belgian and Dutch environments. In addition, this study highlights both the parents' difficult negotiation of same-sex marriage and the role of children in facilitating the acceptance of same-sex families in the CEE context. The implications of these patterns—particularly the transformative power of same-sex marriage and nonheterosexual reproductivity—are further situated into a wider intimate citizenship debate on the consequences of the inclusion of GLB individuals into the mainstream institutions.