Community, Family, Citizenship and the Health of LGBTIQ People
Special Issue of Health Sociology Review
Volume 17 Issue 3 October 2008
iv+92 pages ISBN 978-1-921348-03-7
Editors:
Jane Edwards
University of South Australia
Damien W Riggs
University of Adelaide, SA
Lesbians, gay men, and bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) individuals continue to experience exclusion from social institutions.
In the face of this, these groups of people continue to create their own families and communities that meet their support and wellbeing needs. Nonetheless, the intersections of exclusion from social institutions and varying levels of inclusion in LGBTIQ communities often result in complex health issues for LGBTIQ people.
In response to these issues, this collection of international papers asks questions such as 'What issues do LGBTIQ people encounter as they negotiate their existences in relation to inclusion, exclusion and health?' and 'Which institutions act as gate-keepers and on what conditions are LGBTIQ people allowed access to them'?
The papers in this issue provide answers to these questions. As many of the papers suggest, both medicine and the law act in ways that have somewhat contradictory outcomes for many non-heterosexuals. For example, whilst medical opinion and legislation may change (allowing lesbians more access assisted to reproductive technology), lesbian parenting is often still constructed as 'unnatural'. Advances in genetics, whilst providing greater opportunities for non-heterosexual parenting, nonetheless shore up a dominant, heterosexist definition of 'the family'. Media reporting on the experiences of sperm donors often fails to accounts for the experiences of gay or bisexual men.
For transgender people, and due to the fact that legal recognition of altered gender requires medical intervention, the exercise of citizenship by transgender people is often fraught. And for non-heterosexual couples seeking to adopt, legislation over rights does not always guarantee social contexts that allow those rights to be exercised.
Importantly, however, this issue of Health Sociology Review does not only focus on the 'fault-lines' in social relationships relating to family, community and citizenship between heterosexuals and non-heterosexuals. It also draws attention to fault-lines within LGBTIQ communities. For example, gay men do not always understand the needs of lesbians they donate sperm to, sometimes reinforcing a patriarchal view of the family. And lesbian communities, while conferring some benefits for their members, can also be sites of exclusion and conflict.
As a whole, this collection of articles provides fascinating insight into the complexity of LGBTIQ communities and families themselves, as well as the broader legislative contexts in which LGBTIQ people live.
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