GLIP_Review_Vol_3_No_1.pdf

Gay and Lesbian

Issues and

Psychology

Review

Editors Liz Short &

Damien W. Riggs

The Australian

Psychological

Society Ltd.

ISSN 1833-4512

Gay and Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review

Editor

Damien W. Riggs, The University of Adelaide

Editorial Board

Graeme Kane, Eastern Drug and Alcohol Service

Jim Malcom, The University of Western Sydney

Liz Short, Victoria University

Jane Edwards, Spencer Gulf Rural Health School

Warrick Arblaster, Mental Health Policy Unit, ACT

Murray Drummond, The University of South Australia

Gordon A. Walker, Monash University

Ela Jodko, Private practice

Robert Morris, Private practice

Brett Toelle, The University of Sydney

General Information

All submissions or enquires should be directed in the first instance to the Editor. Guidelines for submissions or for

advertising within the Gay and Lesbian Issues in Psychology Review (Òthe ReviewÓ) are provided on the final page of

each issue.

http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/glip/glip_review/

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Aims and scope

The Review is a peer-reviewed publication that is available online through the Australian Psychological Society

website. Its remit is to encourage research that challenges the stereotypes and assumptions of pathology that have

often inhered to research on lesbians and gay men (amongst others). The aim of the Review is thus to facilitate

discussion over the direction of lesbian and gay psychology in Australia, and to provide a forum within which

academics, practitioners and lay people may publish.

The Review is open to a broad range of material, and especially welcomes research, commentary and reviews that

critically evaluate the status quo in regards to lesbian and gay issues. The Review also seeks papers that redress the

imbalance that has thus far focused on the issues facing white lesbians and gay men, to the exclusion of other sexual

and racial groups.

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Disclaimer

Work published within the Review does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Australian Psychological Society.

Whilst the APS supports the work of the Gay and Lesbian Issues and Psychology Interest Group, it also adheres to its

own standards for practice and research that may at times conflict with those of the Review.

Gay and Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review

Volume 3

Number 1

Contents

Editorial: Parenting, family issues and heteronormativity

Liz Short and Damien W. Riggs

Articles

ÒIt makes the world of differenceÓ: Benefits for children of lesbian parents of having

their parents legally recognised as their parents

Liz Short

Fishing for taddies: Emotion work in lesbian womenÓs search for sperm donors in

South Australia

Margie Ripper

The subjective experience of the lesbian (m)other: An exploration of the construction

of lesbian maternal identity.

Louise du Chesne and Ben Bradley

‘Risking the kids’ vs. ‘double the love’: Couple-counsellors in conversation on LGB parenting

Margaret Evans and Meg Barker

Baby love: Gay donor father narratives of intimacy

Paul van Reyk

Commentaries

Reforming law, reproducing difference: Defining legal parentage of children born through

assisted reproductive technology

Kate Foord

Sole

nising sa

e-sex unions

Rodney Croome

Heteronormativity: PsychologyÓs new (old) str8jacket

Sue Kentlyn

Book Reviews

Confessions of the other mother: Nonbiological lesbian moms tell all!

Mary Danckert

hen our children co

e out

Katherine Cheng

Ex-gay research: Analysing the Spitzer research and its relation to science

Anthony Venn-Brown

Advertisements and Calls for Papers

Girl 2 Girl infor

ation site

Sexualities Journal: Recognising and celebrating non-heterosexual relationships

Gay & Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2007

EDITORIAL: PARENTING, FAMILY ISSUES AND

HETERONORMATIVITY

LIZ SHORT & DAMIEN W. RIGGS

As the title suggests, this issue of the Gay and

Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review contains

articles about parenting by and the families of

lesbian women and gay men. Whilst there are

many differences between the experiences of

lesbian women and gay men living in a

heteropatriarchal society, 1 it is nonetheless the

case that both groups of people experience life

in a context that in multiple ways invalidates

their relationships, attempts to render their

families as something other than or as non-

families, and presents obstacles on the basis of

the sexuality and/or gender of the parents (and

how that is seen to matter). Thus, issues of

legal, public policy and discursive context have

very clear (and frequently negative) impacts

upon parents and children in same-sex parented

families. These are experienced in highly

personal, complex, and subtle, as well as very

practical and overt, ways. These concerns are at

the core of many of the contributions to this

issue, and as such the eyes of many of the

writers are firmly on wanted and needed

change. This issue of the Review thus provides

powerful and important information that we

hope will be both interesting to the reader, and

useful in its provision of information of interest

to legislators, policy makers, decision makers, as

well as to psychologists, teachers, and lesbian

and gay people, amongst others.

Three key concerns can be seen to resonate

throughout this issue that link the legal, public

policy and social context in which people live to

their day-to-day lives. First is the issue of the

importance of legal recognition of relationships

that does not discriminate against people on the

basis of their gender or sexuality, or on the basis

of the gender or sexuality of their parents. The

last five years have seen very significant

changes around the world to remove this kind of

discrimination from legislation and policies, such

as those which recognise couple and family

relationships, and govern such things as the

right to access fertility services, and to apply to

adopt or foster children. As the articles in this

issue illustrate, such changes have been and will

continue to be propelled by many things,

including increased recognition of the

unacceptability and abhorrence of

discrimination, of its negative effects on

individuals and on society, and on how it flies in

the face of human rights principles and social

justice. A second and related focus is language

and discourse. The discriminatory legal situation

and discourses which invalidate and make the

family lives of people in families of same-sex

parents or same-sex attracted parents more

difficult can be seen to be mutually constitutive.

That is, in a world in which the sociocultural and

legal template of a family is one mother and one

father and their (typically biological) children, it

is not surprising that discourses and language

frequently fail to recognise, and are used to

undermine, families of lesbian and gay people. A

third concern that resonates through many of

the contributions is that of the negative

emotional impact and effects of discriminatory

laws, public polices and discourses, and how gay

men and lesbian women, and their children,

have to navigate and negotiate these.

1 It should of course be noted that there are many

differences amongst lesbian women and amongst gay

men, particularly in relation to classed, racial, and

other cultural differences (Riggs, 2007). The focus

primarily on white, coupled lesbian women within this

issue is a reflection of the fact that this group of

parents is the focus of the majority of the family

studies literature on non-heterosexual-parented

families and parenting. Whilst such work is clearly

needed (and is miniscule compared to the literature

on heterosexual-parented families), it is important to

signal here that despite calling broadly for

contributions on LGBTI families and parenting, the

experiences of other marginalised group members

(such as bisexual, transgender or intersex individuals,

and those in polyamorous relationships to name but a

few) are unfortunately left largely unspoken (see

Riggs, 2006, for more on this).

The issue includes five research articles, three

commentaries, and three book reviews. The first

research article explores and presents material

focusing on the benefits for children born into

the family of a female couple of having both

women legally recognised as parents. Short

presents information about the state of legal

recognition (and lack of legal recognition) of the

ISSN 1833-4512 ¨ 2007 Author and Gay & Lesbian Issues and Psychology Interest Group of the Australian Psychological

Society

SHORT & RIGGS: EDITORIAL

parents of children conceived via donor

insemination who are born into the family of a

female couple in Australia. She presents an

overview of the removal of discrimination

against these children (and their parents) that

has occurred over the last few years in the area

of parentage legislation, and summarises the

main reasons why such changes have been

called for. She then presents information about

the beneficial effects on children in parts of

Australia in which laws have been amended so

as to recognise both members of a couple as

parents of a child conceived with donor

insemination, regardless of whether the parents

are a same-sex or a different-sex couple. This

article draws, in part, on the words of people

who have provided information and analysis to

law reform inquires.

amount of complex Òemotion workÓ with known

donors who may well have emotional needs and

wishes that are not necessarily easily

recognised, reconciled, and which can be

somewhat unpredictable.

The third article, by Du Chesne and Bradley,

documents and analyses the subjective

experiences of women who become parents

when their female partner gives birth to a child.

This article also, inevitably, deals with the

negative effects on such mothers when they

have no legal status as parents or as mothers.

The article also deals with the issue of how the

related language and dominant discourses about

motherhood and family must be negotiated and

navigated by lesbian mothers as they construct

their maternal identity. In so doing, the authors

suggest, lesbian non-birth mothers at times

challenge, side-step, use, reject and transform

the binaries and discourses that locate them as

other than (ÒrealÓ) mothers.

The first commentary, by Foord, provides a

powerful and compelling example of material

recently sent to a law reform body, the Victorian

Law Reform Commission, critiquing their interim

recommendation that a non-birth lesbian mother

(of a child conceived using donor insemination)

should be recognised as a parent, but that this

be done through processes of adoption Î in

contrast to heterosexual fathers, who are

automatically treated as legal parents of their

children born from donor sperm.

The fourth article, from England, sees Evans and

Barker examine data collected in focus groups

with counsellors from a family-focused agency.

In their analysis they show that heterosexist and

homophobic discourses are flexibly used by

counsellors when speaking about parenting in

same-sex families. With fine grained and

insightful analysis they present some of the

ways in which these discourses are structured

and deployed, and to what ends. For example,

they illustrate how positioning oneÓs self as

being concerned for childrenÓs well-being can be

a device used to support the retention of

discrimination in laws and public policies. Evans

and Barker also demonstrate how more

affirmative and anti-discriminatory discourses

are also structured and deployed, and how the

two interact. They highlight the need for

counsellors and others to have up-to-date

information and knowledge of the family-studies

research that shows positive outcomes and

experiences for children in same-sex parented

families as one way of countering derogatory

discourses, and of ensuring good counselling

practices.

Also with a keen eye on the problems caused by

legislation that treats some people in a far less

advantageous way because of the gender of

their partner (or of their parents), Ripper

presents material from her research with lesbian

women who are planning to or who have

conceived children in South Australia (SA). As in

Victoria, Australia, and many other parts of the

world, fertility services in SA are generally not

accessible to women who donÓt have a male

partner. This provides one major reason why

lesbian women in SA who want to conceive

often do so with the assistance of a self-

recruited known sperm provider. Ripper analyses

her material with a focus on the Òemotion workÓ

that this involves. RipperÓs article provides

further indication of the difficulties that

discriminatory laws and polices cause, and how

these can come to be intricately (and

problematically) entwined in the emotional

experiences and lives of those involved. It also

sheds light on how such regimes set the scene

for an increased rate of potential conflict or

difficulty, as women seeking donor sperm by

necessity become involved in a significant

In a chapter reprinted from Out in the Antipodes

(Riggs & Walker, 2004), van Reyk discusses and

analyses material from interviews with gay men

who had provided sperm to lesbian women to

conceive a child or children. This article provides

an example of the diverse ways in which gay

men relate to the women to whom they provide

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