Families of Choice in Poland. Same-Sex Relationships As a Modern Alternative to a Family – Case Study.

I intend to present my own PhD research on the everyday functioning of homosexual families in Poland and social acceptance of same-sex families among the society. I would like to refer mostly to the narrative strategies of partners in homosexual families as well as their relations with children brought up in these families.

My research focuses on the same-sex family as an alternative to the traditional family model. I analyse the circumstances in which such a form of a family has emerged both in the Western societies and in Poland. The analysis includes changes of lifestyles, sexuality and interpersonal relations between partners, the key factors which influenced emerging of a same-sex family as a topic of public discourse. Outcomes of the qualitative research aimed at depicting everyday life of a number of same-sex families supplement these deliberations. The research was carried out with the use of individual in-depth interviews conducted with members of same-sex families.

The study showed that its participants do not expect acceptance of the family model they had chosen. They claim that their relationships does not differ from other forms of family life. The interviewees are mostly focused on bonding with children, raising them and performing the usual daily activities.