“We Are Citizens”—Vulnerability and Privilege in the Experiences of Israeli Gay Men with Surrogacy in India

Abstract

In the spring of 2013, I had the opportunity to accompany a group of Israeli gay couples to Mumbai to conduct ethnographic research on their experiences with transnational surrogacy. Based on this study, the article discusses their encounters with the Indian and Israeli bureaucracy establishing legal parenthood and citizenship to their children. The involved procedures seldom worked out smoothly, and brought about many moments of standstill. I suggest that these moments constituted crises of citizenship, in which the intended parents’ experiences clashed with their expectations towards the state and their place in the world. As both countries had no written policies with regards to transnational surrogacy, the protocols and requirements were in flux and left them with constant anxiety from the unknown and with the feeling that many of the requirements were arbitrary, even exploitative or spiteful. The very same moments also unveiled my interlocutors’ power, as agents and brokers—and at times even their social network back home—assisted them in the maze of bureaucracy and intervened on their behalf. Yet, their reliance on intermediators turned out to be a double-edged sword: The intended parents often felt that the middle men themselves were not engaged enough, overcharged them, or tricked them into additional payments. Vulnerability and privilege go here hand in hand, thus allowing for an understanding of intended parents that does not view them as either successful neoliberal citizens or vulnerable victims of the state.