Beyond marriage: LGBT families in Spain.

Beyond marriage: LGBT families in Spain. José Ignacio Pichardo Galán, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid joseignacio.pichardo@uam.es Conference on LGBT families in Europe 4-6 March 2008 Ljubljana (Slovenia)

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes • From Franco’s dictatorship: • Catholic conceptions of family. • Persecution of homosexualiy. • To the newly democratic Spain’s 1978 Constitution: • Tolerance and openness to sexuality (heterosexuality). • End of 1970s: legalization of homosexuality. • 1980s: fall in LGBT activism. • AIDS epidemic: discrimination and visibility. • From 1995: LGBT movement boomed.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes • Adoption Law (1987): • any single person, heterosexual or not, is allowed to adopt a child individually. • unmarried different-sex couples are allowed to adopt jointly. • Spain is the 2nd country in the world for international adoptions: multiracial families.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes • Adoption Law (1987). • Law on Assisted Reproductive Techniques (1988): • any woman, married or not, heterosexual or homosexual, can use ART.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes • 10% of the women who use these techniques are not married. • Percentage of lesbians? • 20% foreigners (Portugal, Italy, France, Morocco and United Kingdom). • Surrogate motherhood is not allowed.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes • Adoption Law (1987). • Law on Assisted Reproductive Techniques, (1988). • Regional laws for registered partnership (1998-2005): • same-sex couples can register themselves.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes • Adoption Law (1987). • Law on Assisted Reproductive Techniques, (1988). • Regional laws for registered partnership (1998-2005): • same-sex couples can register themselves. • in some regions, they can adopt jointly (without marrying).

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes • Adoption Law (1987). • Law on Assisted Reproductive Techniques (1988). • Regional laws for registered partnership (1998-2005). • Same-sex marriage (2005):

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes • Adoption Law (1987). • Law on Assisted Reproductive Techniques (1988). • Regional laws for registered partnership (1998-2005). • Same-sex marriage (2005): • social consensus (3% in 1973 / 66% in 2004),

Do you think homosexual couples should have the right to marry? 1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes CIS, June 2004

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes • Adoption Law (1987). • Law on Assisted Reproductive Techniques (1988). • Regional laws for registered partnership (1998-2005). • Same-sex marriage (2005): • social consensus (3% in 1973 / 66% in 2004), • Conservative and Catholic Church resistances,

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes Arguments against gay-marriage: • It is unnatural • The best interest of children • Not having appropriate gender models • Confused • Can get bullied • Homosexuals are prone to: promiscuity, drugs, sexual abuse, mental instability, higher rates of HIV-AIDS • No society recognizes same-sex marriage • Threatens the economic system (social security will bankrupt) • A virus on society • Not recognized outside the country • Why being experimental?

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes Madrid, 18th June 2005, anti-gay marriage demonstration: “FAMILY DOES MATTER”

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes • Adoption Law (1987). • Law on Assisted Reproductive Techniques (1988). • Regional laws for registered partnership (1998-2005). • Same-sex marriage (2005): • social consensus (3% in 1973 / 66% in 2004), • Conservative and Catholic Church resistances, • overcoming resistances.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes Democracy / Spanish Constitution International influence: European resolutions and declarations. LGBT and Human Rights movement Reason vs religion Citizens defines “marriage”: A majority of Spaniards voted for same-sex marriage. Gay and lesbian activist in political parties Political opportunity Visibility: Social acceptance “Love” as a symbol LGBT movement presented as united for “gay marriage” Citizenship: no equal but separate rights. Children living in LGBT families: Andalusia and Madrid Study (2002): no significant differences

Madrid Gay Pride Demonstration Attendance 1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Changes • Adoption Law (1987). • Law on Assisted Reproductive Techniques, (1988). • Regional laws for registered partnership (1998-2005). • Same-sex marriage (2005). • Gender Identity Law (2007): • 2006 New Law on ART was revised to automatically recognize filiation rights for married lesbian couples.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Queers and families • Not a discourse about “chosen families”. • Friends are friends, not family, although they can be “as family”: they are important anyway. • What’s a family? • Partners, sometimes family, sometimes not. • More than two to be family (children). • Having children in LGBT’s life horizons.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Queers and families Paternity among Spanish LGBs (N=263)

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Queers and families • Schools as a mayor preocupation for LGBTs with children. • Law on Education (2006): • Respect for sexual and familiar diversity has to be taught at school. • Education for Human Rights and Citizenship: • Fight against homophobia and recognition of diverse forms of families.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Queers and families • Students conceptions of family (N=4,643): • 85% students wouldn’t find relevant the fact that a classmate lives in an LGBT family and/or they would support him/her. • 2,8% would not talk to him/her, and 2,6% would bully him/her

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Queers and families • Not a detachment between the groups they create and biological families. • Recognition from and integration with their biological families: • as a homosexual person, • of their partner (if they have one), • of their offspring if they have any (or their partner’s). • Ritual moments. • Important for the biological family to keep their relation with the homosexual member.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Queers and families • Discourses about “new families”. • Reproduction for recognition. • Breaking the link of heterosexuality-filiation-alliance-intercourse. • “Life experiments”.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Norms in practice • 2001 - Census: • 10,474 homosexual couples (0.11%). • 2005 - Spanish National Statistic Institute: • 1,275 homosexual couples got married (0.61%) • 2006 - Spanish National Statistic Institute: • 4,574homosexual couples got married (2.16%) • By Dec 2007 - Spanish LGBT Federation: • 150 same-sex joint adoption, • 42 divorces. UK: 31.344 inscriptions in the first year!

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Norms in practice • Who is getting married? • people in long-term relationships with common possessions, • couples in which one member is ill or about to die, • couples with offspring (in order to adopt the other partner’s son/daughter), • couples in which one of the partners needs to solve their immigration situation. • some couples refer to a “romantic activism” to get married. Social recognition. * * * *

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Norms in practice Marriages in 2006

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Norms in practice

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Norms in practice • Homophobia: • Absence or members of the family during the wedding. • Not taking days off / Not saying it at work. • Reasons not to marry: • Public outing. • International adoption. • Homosexuality illegal in home country. • Not sharing marriage values.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Challenges and future • Not legal equality: • Filiation rights recognized but only automatically if married and using ART in clinics. • Unmarried, unregistered same-sex couples cannot adopt jointly. • Public policies: • No budget and many resistances. • Homophobic judges.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Challenges and future • Judge Calamita: • Prevented a woman to adopt her spouse biological daughter (ART). • Took away custody of her daughter from a mother because of being lesbian. • Fined and suspended. • Fear from LGBT parents

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Challenges and future • Not legal equality: • Filiation rights recognized but only automatically if married and using ART in clinics. • Unmarried, unregistered same-sex couples cannot adopt jointly. • Public policies: • No budget and many resistances. • Homophobic judges. • Conservative party (Rajoy): • Abolish same-sex marriage.

1.Changes 2.Specificity or queer families in Spain 3.Norms in practice: getting married or not 4.Challenges and future Challenges and future “I won’t allow the conservative candidate to deny rights to any single family”

Beyond marriage: LGBT families in Spain.