Parenthood and Parental Desires among LGBTQ People: Generational and Cross-national Perspectives

LGBT rights and non-discrimination policies towards gender and sexual orientation are at the top of the European Union’s priorities.

Over the last decades, Western countries greatly improved the legal recognition of LGBTQ families, while an increasingly part of them are allowing same-sex couples to marry and to access adoption process and/or artificial reproductive technologies (ART).

In France, same-sex couples can adopt children since their legal possibility to marry in 2013, but as there are very few minor children to adopt through the accredited adoption agencies, most of them try to develop other possibilities by conceiving their own biological children.

The dramatic changes in the legal contexts simultaneously imply a generational shift in the routes to parenthood among LGBTQ people.

However, the legal restriction preventing single women and women couples to access ART and the prohibition of surrogacy in France compel same-sex couples to engage ""procreative migrations"" in other countries, which carry economic inequalities.

People who face strong barriers to achieve their parental desires thus may be lest satisfied with their life, face higher risks of depression and feel less support within their families of origin.

Therefore, while most research focused on well-being among children raised by same-sex couples, access to parenthood also raises mental health issues among LGBTQ adults.

Cross-national insights between France and US, using mixed methods in the two countries, will then highlight policy effects in the family lives of gender and sexual minorities, and thus challenge policy makers. The analysis of LGBTQ parenthood across generations will also contributing to enlighten social change.

Consequently, the research project will lead to better understanding of LGBTQ families and the challenge they face, but also to initiating scientific discussions in France concerning their inclusion in surveys and research works.