Abstract

Saving Delaney is one of a number of “special needs” parent memoirs published in the United States since 2000 and is the only memoir about raising a disabled child in the United States written by lesbian parents. Like many representations of disability, “special needs” parent memoirs use a problematic narrative in which the presumed negative effects of disability are individually overcome before life lived happily ever after. Also like popular and positive representations of disability, the children subjects of “special needs” parent memoirs are almost entirely white. In this paper, I contextualize Saving Delaney within histories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) family-making in the United States, drawing particular attention to the overrepresentation of children with disabilities among gay and lesbian adoptive parent households. Then, drawing attention to the overwhelming whiteness of both positive portrayals of children with disabilities in “special needs” parent memoirs and LGBT families in scholarship, data, and media, I argue that white privilege facilitates visibility and protection against disability stigmas. I demonstrate that LGBT family-making and caring for children with disabilities cohere as issues of comprehensive reproductive justice and that narratives like Delaney’s fail to advance the reproductive justice movement due to reiterative entrenchment in the material and discursive privileges of whiteness.

 抽象的

《拯救德莱尼》是2000年以来美国出版的多本“特殊需要”家长回忆录之一，也是唯一一本由女同性恋父母在美国抚养残疾孩子的回忆录。与许多对残疾的描述一样，“特殊需要”的家长回忆录使用了一种有问题的叙述，其中假定的残疾负面影响在生活幸福之前就被单独克服了。与对残疾的流行和积极的描述一样，“特殊需要”父母回忆录的儿童主题几乎全是白人。在本文中，我将《拯救德莱尼》置于美国女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋和跨性别者 (LGBT) 家庭组建的历史背景下，特别关注同性恋养父母家庭中残疾儿童比例过高的问题。然后，我提请人们注意“有特殊需要”的家长回忆录中对残疾儿童的积极描绘以及学术、数据和媒体中对 LGBT 家庭的正面描述中压倒性的白人形象，我认为白人特权有助于提高可见度并防止残疾耻辱。我证明，LGBT 家庭的建立和对残疾儿童的照顾都是综合生殖正义问题，而像德莱尼这样的叙述由于反复巩固白人的物质和话语特权而未能推进生殖正义运动。