Licence required: French lesbian parents confront the obligation to marry in order to establish kinship

Abstract

Before 2013, French children could not have two parents of the same sex. For example, non‐biologically related mothers in lesbian couples were legally invisible and prohibited to use second‐parent adoption. A 2013 bill legalising same‐sex marriage and adoption authorised that option. However, this reform requires same‐sex couples – but not heterosexual couples – to marry before establishing parental rights. Given this inequality, we ask: compared to their heterosexual peers, do French same‐sex couples with children marry more often? What do they think about same‐sex marriage in general and their own marriages in particular? To answer these questions, we draw on survey responses and interviews from the first national cohort study of French same‐sex couples, most of whom are lesbian, raising children born between 2011 and 2013 (n = 162). We find significantly higher marriage rates among same‐sex parents compared to different‐sex parents. What may appear at first glance to be an unvarnished attachment to marriage is belied by discriminatory logics requiring couples to go against their stated ambivalence towards the institution of marriage in order to safeguard their parental rights. We argue that this burden is a form of legal violence that enforces heterosexist norms through legislation that was ostensibly enacted in the name of equality.

The Legal Vulnerability Model for Same-Sex Parent Families: A Mixed Methods Systematic Review and Theoretical Integration

“…k = 46 for qualitative timeframe because qualitative part of Kosciw and Diaz ( 2008 ) not coded. k = 11 for quantitative study design because quantitative part from Stambolis-Ruhstorfer and Descoutures ( 2020 ) and Chamberlain et al ( 2015 ) not coded .…”

“…Our review suggests that the legal recognition of the interparental or the parent-child relationship is associated with increased feelings of family legitimacy, stability, normalcy, and cohesion for all family members (Short, 2007 ; Porche and Purvin, 2008 ; Goldberg and Kuvalanka, 2012 ; DiGregorio, 2016 ; Gash and Raiskin, 2018 ; Malmquist et al, 2020 ), and also in the perception of others (e.g., Hequembourg and Farrell, 1999 ; Rawsthorne, 2013 ; Vučković Juroš, 2019b ; Stambolis-Ruhstorfer and Descoutures, 2020 ). Conversely, lacking legal recognition has been described as being associated with feelings of diminished family legitimacy, notably only with regard to others, in studies within our review (Goldberg and Allen, 2013 ; Gash and Raiskin, 2018 ).…”

“…Family members engage in counteractions to mitigate legal vulnerability in other family members, as evidence within our review suggests. These relate to emotion regulation (e.g., parents instilling pride in their children about their family; e.g., Goldberg et al, 2013 ; Butterfield and Padavic, 2014 ; Maxwell and Kelsey, 2014 ; Ollen and Goldberg, 2016 ), emphasizing equal parenting (Goldberg and Allen, 2013 ; Malmquist et al, 2020 ), or creating legal dependency between family members (e.g., by obtaining second-parent adoption in the absence of legal partnership options; e.g., Hequembourg and Farrell, 1999 ; Dalton and Bielby, 2000 ; Acosta, 2017 ; Wheeler et al, 2018 ; Stambolis-Ruhstorfer and Descoutures, 2020 ).…”