Kinship and Affect
Families created by same-sex couples are at the center of contemporary debates on marriage and filiation. The desire to have a child expressed by gays and lesbians can be achieved through adoption, assisted procreation or co-parenting. In all these configurations arises the question of what kind of relation is being established with the « social » parent. This bond is socially valued as evidence of the strength of love and will in the creation of a family. Individual choices and emotional proximity are thus highlighted as the foundation of family attachment. From an ethnographic survey of French homoparental families, I analyze the connections between affects, parenthood and filiation, in a context marked by recent changes in the legislation about marriage and adoption. Considering that the central function of filiation is to incorporate an individual into a kinship network, I aim to show that the very absence of official recognition conditions this integration to the demonstration of an affective attachment.