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Experiences of and Responses to Disempowerment, Violence and Injustice within the Relational Lives of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Two Spirited (LGBTQ2) People.
Language: English
This session will interrogate the ongoing entrenchment of hetero-normative borders and consequential manifestations of power, violence and in/justice experienced by LGBTQ2 people in their relationships and family lives.
Despite many recent social justice victories for LGBTQ2 people and their families around the world, they continue to face violence, injustice, and persecution. In many countries laws or social sanctions continue to prohibit same sex relationships or transgenderism. In countries where being LGBTQ2 is legal – and even celebrated – LGBTQ2 families and relationships continue to face legal and/or social injustices in many spheres of life including parenting rights, difficulties in accessing fertility treatment or adoption agencies, a lack of protection from discrimination, limited or no relationship recognition, immigration discrimination, and a lack of access to homo/trans positive service providers including aged care, counselling, lawyers, schools, and medical professionals.
Themes and questions related to this session include:
- Power within the families/relationships, and power external to them. From the power of the state, gendered and heteronormative power structures within their relationships and families, to the power of biological privilege and parenthood.
- The legacy, impact of, and responses to social sanctions and legislation that discriminate against LGBTQ2 people and their relationships.
- Issues of domestic and family violence within same-sex and/or transgender relationships and the often heteronormative criminal justice and social welfare agency responses.
We welcome papers addressing such questions, both theoretical discussions and empirical work, on manifestations of power, violence and in/justice experienced by LGBTQ2 people in their relationships and family lives.