Families in Negotiations: Chinese Non-Heterosexual Women’s (Lalas’) Strategies to Form Same-Sex Families in China

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  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 16. LGBTQ Families and Polyamory

Abstract

This research marks the first important attempt to examine Chinese non-heterosexual women’s (lalas in Chinese terms) experiences of struggles and their employment of diverse strategies to build non-normative families in the Chinese context, where same-sex relationships remain heavily stigmatized. It sheds light on the unequal power relations within and beyond the institution of the family, which continues to define the acceptable parameters of the “family” in China.

Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 35 lala-identified women in Beijing, this research revealed that lalas had different strategies, or “choices” as framed and narrated by informants, to resist and/or accommodate heterosexual norms in both private and public spheres, form their own families, and gain recognition for their families. These strategies ranged from entering contract marriage with a gay man to appear to be heterosexual, excelling oneself as an independent adult with financial independence and mental strength, travelling overseas for same-sex marriage, to using assisted reproductive technology to have one’s own child(ren).

By revealing and analyzing these strategies within the socio-cultural, economic, and political context of Beijing, the present study highlights that traditional social and familial norms upheld by families of origin and heteronormative assumptions embedded in the market and government polices continue to structure and limit lalas’ opportunities to form their families. It not only provides new empirical evidence of injustices and negotiations in lalas’ processes of family formation, but it also adds contextual nuance to theorizing about choice and individualisation in the midst of social inequalities.

Author

• Iris Po Yee Lo, The University of Oxford