GRSJ224/pathwaystoparenthood

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Pathways to Parenthood for Queer Women of Colour

For queer women of colour, the pathway to parenthood is complex. Evolving social norms and political regulations are allowing for the increased frequency of family formation among queer women. While inherently complex due to the biological limitations of queer partnerships, LBQ women who are seeking family formation are faced with decisions regarding their pathway to parenthood. For queer women of colour, the path to parenthood is even more complicated due to the profound effects of Canada’s longstanding history of institutional racism.

The pathway to parenthood for queer women commonly requires a decision to be made between two paths; pursuing adoption or donor insemination. In order to understand the decision making process, as well as the experiences of queer women of colour during the family formation process, it is critical to understand the sociocultural context.

Sociocultural Context

History of suppressing reproduction in populations of colour

The history of oppressive reproductive practices in Canada, such as forced or coerced birth control, abortion and sterilization, has a significant effect on the decision making process regarding family planning for queer women of colour[1] . Legislation authorizing the involuntary sterilization of Canadians disproportionality affected people of colour. The history of eugenics in Canada was a racist movement to promote “social purity”[2] by controlling the reproduction of people who were considered “mentally defective"[3]. However, Indigenous women and black women were particularly targeted by this policy.

Such oppressive race-based policies are an expression of white supremacy and by extension, colonialism and colonization. Within this context, sharing cultural practices and kinship relationships with individuals from one’s own cultural and racial background is an act of resistance of black and Indigenous individuals[4]. For this reason, studies have shown that sharing cultural and racial identities with their children is especially important for lesbian, bisexual and queer (LBQ) women of colour[5].

Forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples through adoption

Historically, and still today, Indigenous children in Canada are adopted into White families at alarmingly high rates[6]. During colonization, the transracial adoption of Indigenous children into white families was a method of cultural assimilation. Children living apart from their families and communities lost their connection to their culture and resulted in significant trauma. The forced adoption of Indigenous children into white families has been labeled cultural genocide[7].

Residential School

The Canadian government forcefully removed children from their families and their communities and placed them in residential schools. In these schools, the Indigenous children were forced to speak english and were not allowed to engage with their culture in any way. In addition to being stripped of their culture and identity, the children experienced brutal forms of sexual and physical abuse. The effect of residential schools in Canada has traumatized generations of Indigenous peoples.

The Sixties Scoop

In the 1960's the Canadian government entered Indigenous communities and forcefully removed children from their homes and communities without parental consent. The children were placed in foster homes with White families. Similarly to the effect of the residential schools, Indigenous children continued to lose their cultural knowledge and lost connection to their families and communities.

This history has a significant impact on the perspective of Indigenous women, and other women of colour, regarding the practice of adoption. In response to this history, LBQ women of colour often reject transracial adoption and choose to raise children from their own race, or reject adoption altogether[8].

LBQ Exclusion from adoption and bio-reproduction

Until the late 1980s, medial professionals regularly refused to inseminate single and partnered women who were openly LBQ[9]. Early sperm banks shipped the donated sperm to medical facilities and required a medical professional to facilitate the insemination process. [9] Therefore, the views of the health care provider regarding homosexuality and LBQ parenting could serve as a barrier for the woman to obtain the procedure[9]. Similarly, discrimination and homophobia in the adoption system prevented LBQ women from adopting children until approximately the same time period[10].

Adoption

The literature on queer adoption demonstrates that LBQ women of colour pursue adoption less frequently than white LBQ women[11]. In general, queer women of colour who choose adoption in their pathway to parenthood seek an adoptive child who shares the ethnic and racial background of of the parents[8]. The rejection of transracial adoption among queer women of colour is often cited as a response to the historical trauma of transracial adoption as a means of assimilation and colonization [8].

The donor insemination process

Finding a donor

There are two main pathways to finding a donor; accessing sperm banks or through social networks and family.

Sperm donors for insemination from sperm banks can either be anonymous or known to the donor recipients. Women who choose to seek anonymous donors often cite fears that the donor may eventually seek custody or parental involvement in the child's life[12]. Conversely, some women wish to have the donor involved in the child's life. In this case, it is common for women to obtain a donation from through social networks and family[12].

When accessing sperm banks, queer women of colour often seek donors who share the same racial background as one or both parents[5]. Parents who make this decision commonly assert that it is important to them that their child is able to access their ethnic, racial and cultural communities[5]. Rooted in Canada's history of oppressive race-based policies, the intergenerational transmission of cultural knowledge and practices is incredibly important for queer women of colour [5].

However, there is a lack of donors of colour at sperm banks, reducing the options for women of colour seeking a donor who shares their racial background. Families may find that sperm banks do not meet their needs. Queer women of colour frequently choose to access donors through their social networks and families[13].

In addition to a desire for the donor to be involved in the child's life, biological relatedness is often cited as a motivating factor for couples to choose a donor from the non gestational parents family[14]. For the non gestational parent and their family, the biological relatedness of the child increases their sense of closeness and connection to the child[14].  

Discrimination in care

Despite the elimination of many legal barriers to receiving care, LBQ women seeking maternity care commonly report experiencing discrimination[15]. Experiences of discrimination can take the form of overt homophobia, such as the refusal of service or health insurance policies that do not include fertility services for same-sex partners[15]. Discrimination can also be in the form of covert homophobia, such as inappropriate questioning, treatment protocols designed for heterosexual couples, or heteronormative assumptions[15].

Most commonly, LBQ women experience discrimination in the heteronormative systems embedded in medical institutions[15]. One of the ways medical services could be more accommodating to all individuals seeking and obtaining care is updating the forms and paperwork to be more suitable for family structures that do not reflect a heteronormative nuclear family structure. Making small changes such as these would serve to make more individuals feel comfortable and accepted during a very sensitive and intimate time of their life.

  1. ↑ Roberts, D (1995). "The genetic tie". The University of Chicago Law Review. 62: 209–273.
  2. ↑ Paul, Diane B. 1995. Controlling Human Heredity: 1865 to the Present. New Jersey: Humanities Press International, Inc.
  3. ↑ Grekul J., Krahn H. & Odynak D. (2004) Sterilizing the ‘Feebleminded’: Eugenics in Alberta, Canada, 1929–1972. Journal of Historical Sociology 17, 358–384
  4. ↑ Silliman, J., Fried, M. G., Ross, L., & Gutiérrez, E. R. (2004). Undivided rights:Women of color organize for reproductive justice. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Basford-Pequet, J. M. (2010). Between Scylla and Charybdis: How does race and sexual orientation affect the family planning process of interracial queer women-identified couples?: A project based upon an independent investigation (Unpublished master’s thesis). Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, MA.
  6. ↑ Simon, R. J., & Hernandez, S. (2008). Native American transracial adoptees tell their stories. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
  7. ↑ Hamilton, E. R., Samek, D. R., Keyes, M.,McGue,M. K., & Iacono, W. G. (2015). Identity development in a transracial environment: Racial/ethnic minority adoptees inMinnesota. Adoption Quarterly, 18, 217–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926755.2015.1013593
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Goldberg, A. E., & Smith, J. Z. (2009). Predicting non–African American lesbian and heterosexual preadoptive couples’ openness to adopting an African American child. Family Relations, 58, 346–360. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2009.00557.x
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Agigian, A. (2004). Baby steps: How lesbian alternative insemination is changing the world. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
  10. ↑ Brown, S., Smalling, S., Groza, V., & Ryan, S. (2009). The experiences of gay men and lesbians in becoming and being adoptive parents. Adoption Quarterly, 12, 229–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926750903313294
  11. ↑ Mezey, N. J. (2008). New choices, new families: How lesbians decide about motherhood. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapman et al., 2012Chapman, R., Wardrop, J., Zappia, T., Watkins, R., and Shields, L. The experiences of Australian lesbian couples becoming parents: Deciding, searching and birthing. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 2012; 21: 1878–1885https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2011.04007.x
  13. ↑ Brill, S. A. (2001). The Queer Parent's Primer: A Lesbian and Gay Familie's Guide to Navigating the Straight World. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Karpman, Hannah & Ruppel, Emily & Torres, Maria. (2018). “It wasn't feasible for us”: Queer Women of Color Navigating Family Formation: Queer Women Of Color Family Formation. Family Relations. 67. 118-131. 10.1111/fare.12303.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Hayman, B., Wilkes, L., Halcomb, E., & Jackson, D. (2013). Marginalised mothers: Lesbian women negotiating heteronormative health services. Contemporary Nurse, 44, 120–127. https://doi.org/10.5172/conu.2013.44.1.120
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