Whose sperm matters: Negotiating ‘gametic feelings’ in gay men’s family making in third-party reproduction

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 14: Sexual and Gender Minority Families

Abstract

This article investigates how gay men and their families reconceptualised ‘blood ties/relatedness’ [xiě yuán], which often refers to the genetic connection in kinship making in Taiwan. In particular, I delve into how people feel about biogenetic relatedness that comes with the visible and tangible substance of sperm while accessing third-party reproduction to become fathers. Drawing on interviews with 53 gay fathers and prospective fathers, and participant observation, I delineate gay men’s complex, intertwined, and relational feelings about either the presence or absence of sperm in reproduction. By doing so, I provide a nuanced understanding of how they initiate ‘sperm negotiations’ with families, accommodate various genetic arrangements, and strategically come out as biological fathers to obtain recognition, which reshapes the meaning of ‘blood ties’ in patrilineal society. I propose the notion of ‘gametic feeling’ to capture the emotions and affections surrounding relationship thinking and making as a social reality, since such feelings are both relational, circulating among and orienting towards others, and generative, in the sense that belongingness and relatedness are rooted in feelings about others. This study addresses a broader inquiry: how family has been transformed in third-party reproduction, and what normativity has been challenged or reinforced in queer reproduction?

Author

• Jung Chen, Academia Sinica