“There is not just one way of doing it”: A queer intercultural analysis of same-sex adoptive parents’ (dis-)identifications with family-making

Abstract

ABSTRACT The experiences of queer/LGBTQ+ adoptive parents have received limited attention within the communication discipline, particularly at the junction of family and intercultural studies. This qualitative study employs Muñoz’s (1999. Disidentifications: Queers of color and the performance of politics. University of Minnesota Press) disidentifications to unpack how same-sex male adoptive parents re-configure and re-articulate dominantly ascribed meanings such as “family” and “legitimacy.” Based on 20 interviews, this study analyzes how same-sex adopters navigate the heteronormative forces of parenting and traverse the assimilation/resistance dichotomy when it comes to queer parents raising children without (biological) parents. Following a critical thematic analysis, our interview discourses reveal three (dis)identificatory aspects: (a) (re)thinking belonging as parents, (b) (re)articulating legitimacy and (c) (re)making inclusion. Overall, our findings delineate the way same-sex adoptive families construct a hybridity of normalcy and difference without having to live up to heteronormative modes of knowing and relating.