Workshop 4 - NRT and LGBT parenting
Workshop 4
NRT and LGBT parenting
Workshop co-ordinators: Maks Banens and Magali Mazuy
New reproductive techniques have made it possible for same-sex couples to become parents. In many countries, including France, practices are in advance of legal recognition in this area. This workshop will examine three series of questions concerning LGBT parenting.
• Are the majority of LGBT families – if this signifies the cohabitation of one or more children with one or more LGBT parents – now being created through new reproductive techniques, rather than being the consequence of a previous heterosexual relationship, as was generally the case in the past? Among the families created, what is the distribution of the different techniques, methods and configurations? Is there really a lesbian baby boom? What about gay parenting? How is it organized, and how is it experienced?
• What is the desire for children among lesbians and gays, notably the younger generations, in this context of developments in NTR? Is this the desire of couples or of individuals? How does child desire emerge in same-sex couples? Are there any particular dimensions to child desire among LGBTs, linked to their particular place in society?
• How does LGBT parenting affect LGBT
lifestyles? How does the LGBT community view child desire,
artificial insemination by a physician or at home, coparenting and
surrogacy? Is the LGBT community becoming divided on this issue? To
what extent do age, and hence generational differences, play a
role? Are we simply witnessing a diversification of LGBT
behaviours, or rather a further step towards integration,
associated with a loss of some of the specific aspects of the LGBT
lifestyle?