Abstract

The present paper focuses on transnational families of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) migrants and addresses their peculiar absence in sociological and geographical perspectives across migrations, families and sexualities research. It draws from a study of middle-class LGB migrants who are married or raising children with a same-sex partner in Belgium and the Netherlands and their parents still residing in select Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries with constitutional protection of heterosexual marriage. The goal of the study is to examine how intersections of class and sexualities shape CEE LGB migrants’ trajectories and transnational family practices. The analysis is based on one life story, situated in a comparative framework. The present study approaches the middle-class experiences and non-normative sexualities of CEE migrants as continuously reappearing and disappearing privileges and disadvantages. From this viewpoint, the study highlights class advantages as consistently alleviating the disadvantages of non-normative sexualities, but also simultaneously bringing both further restrictions and additional benefits to the married CEE LGB migrants, particularly those with children. These restrictions are best reflected in the limits to further mobilities that stem from the risk of losing extensive legal protection of same-sex partnership and parenting. The benefits further extending class advantages are identifiable in the intensification of transnational family practices following planned same-sex parenthood. These not only transform and strengthen the intimacies of CEE LGB migrants with their families-of-origin, but they also contribute to shifting assumptions of ‘normal’ familyhood, particularly in relation to technology-assisted reproduction, social parenthood and the nurturer roles.

摘要

本论文侧重于女同性恋、男同性恋和双性恋 (LGB) 移民的跨国家庭，并解决他们在移民、家庭和性研究的社会学和地理视角中的特殊缺位。它来自对在比利时和荷兰与同性伴侣结婚或抚养孩子的中产阶级 LGB 移民的研究，他们的父母仍居住在特定的中欧和东欧 (CEE) 国家，这些国家的宪法保护异性婚姻。该研究的目的是研究阶级和性行为的交集如何塑造 CEE LGB 移民的轨迹和跨国家庭实践。该分析基于一个生活故事，位于一个比较框架中。本研究将中东欧移民的中产阶级经历和非规范性行为视为不断重现和消失的特权和劣势。从这个角度来看，该研究强调了阶级优势不断减轻非规范性行为的劣势，但同时也为已婚的中东欧 LGB 移民，特别是那些有孩子的移民带来了进一步的限制和额外的好处。这些限制最好地反映在对进一步流动的限制上，这些限制源于失去对同性伴侣关系和养育子女的广泛法律保护的风险。进一步扩大阶级优势的好处可以从计划的同性父母身份后跨国家庭实践的加强中看出。