Homoparentality Survey

This article is published in partnership with Links-socio.org

Emmanuel Gratton’s work, rewarded with the Prize The world From university research, comes from his doctoral thesis defended in January 2006 under the direction of Vincent de Gaulejac. It takes as object gay paternity and more specifically the decision taken by homosexual men to become fathers outside of any heteroparental union. This work succeeds that of Anne Cadoret. For this one, the training of a homosexual family is available under four modes. It is either a family made up of a gay or lesbian couple and the children of one of the two spouses born within the framework of a previous heterosexual union ; Either of a situation of co -parenting, when a couple of women and a couple of men get along so that a child is procreated by one of the members of each couple and is recognized by his parents ; Either of an adoption, one of the two members of the homosexual family requesting it or by the use of new reproductive techniques. These various family configurations are represented among the 27 men who agreed to participate in the search for Emmanuel Gratton.

We quickly enter Emmanuel Gratton’s work, from the outset, the frame is laid in a dynamic way. The preface by Irene Théry recalls the initially militant dimension of the homoparentality term, intended to fight the social prejudice according to which one cannot be both homosexual and parent. In his introduction, Emmanuel Gratton presents research, the parenting projects of men encountered and offers a very heuristic picture of gay paternity. It should be noted that the average age of the fathers interviewed is 40 years and that of gays who are planned or who abandoned the project is 37 years. On average, gays interviewed became fathers at the age of 35. The average age at the first paternity, at the national level, is around 30 years, which shows a five -year gap between general paternity and gay paternity, a gap which can be explained by a later desire for a child or by the obstacles that are presented to its realization. The fathers he was able to question have various professional situations, they mainly belong to the social, medical, intellectual, commercial or accounting professions. Their level of training is high. 19 of the 27 men encountered by the author are or were members of theAGPL8 of which with strong involvement. The unveiling of homosexuality to the family is carried out at an average age of just over 26 years, at an age close to the first marital homo relationship.

In the first chapter “ Gays in the face of the desire for a child Recalls with profit that gays and lesbians are not similarly in relation to heterosexual domination. The lesbian movement was built in the 1970s on the idea of ​​an emancipation of patriarchy and male domination. The gay movement, also victim of male and heterosexual domination, obviously cannot be on the same level as the lesbian movement, not having to detach from matriarchal power. The gays, on the other hand, live in a society which gives a preponderant place to mothers. Consequently, gays and lesbians do not encounter the same obstacles in their parenting project. E. Gratton identifies three registers of desire for parenting in the people he interviewed. The desire for a child as a desire for transmission refers to both self -prolongation, registration in a genealogy and participation in the community of men (Transmission axis). It manifests itself in particular, through the renewal of generations. The desire to conceive, if it is shared, takes on meaning in this sharing with the companion or with a woman (Alliance axis). According to the third axis, the existent axisThe father is a way of responding to identity aspirations in terms of place in the order of generations and in the order of the sexes, the strength of this desire must be on the side of the symbolic and the imaginary. These three modalities of the desire for a child are analyzed in all their wealth during the chapter, these registers being synthesized in a diagram (p 59). The expression of a desire for a child in gays is comparable in kind to that of other men of their generation, especially on the axis of transmission. Paternity in a gay can come to mark the will of a subsidiary inscription that homosexuality has more or less questioned. Gay desire, compared to that of heterosexual men, is generally characterized by greater intensity and by the precocity of this desire.

The second chapter, “ Anthropological construction of kinship Recalls that gender difference and paternity are not universal data, resulting from primary biological data. E. Gratton brilliantly underlines that these dimensions are deeply social. The third chapter, “ Western construction of the conjugal model », Allows the author to examine the construction of the Western kinship system, which he calls Bioconjugal. With great reinforcements of historical and anthropological references, these two chapters draw a real program of sociology, returning to the universalizing received ideas and showing the weight of culture in the models that we think at first glance universal. The chapter Iv“ The symbolic order in question », Returns more specifically to the question of homoparentality and takes stock of the debates surrounding it. We can for example recall the position of Irene Théry to publicize the content of the scientific debates in question. Irène Théry, yet favorable to Pacsand even to a partnership contract which would offer the same rights between spouses as marriage, remains cautious about the possibilities of access to marriage for people of the same sex. She also wonders about the opportunity to recognize certain homofamilles, considering that all children have the right to have a father and a mother. Gratton also gives way to the reasoning of psychologists such as Paul Denis, J.-P. Winter, but also G. Delaisi de Parseval who took a position in favor of homoparentality. Finally, the last two chapters (chapter V: “ Dangerous Disadians », Chapter Vi : “ Homoparental connections ) Back on Emmanuel Gratton’s investigation posing and analyzing three modalities of becoming Fathers: becoming alone, becoming as a couple, becoming it within the framework of a co -parenting.

The tone of the work is always fair, clear, precise. It makes room for analyzes that make it possible to build a generalist framework of reflection on the question of homoparentality. The three chapters devoted to the social dimensions of gender difference, paternity, the debates around homoparentality, do not at all the interest of the work and is perfectly written in its general economy. Leaving only three chapters ultimately devoted to the investigation proper, the book leaves the reader curious to find out more. But is it not also the quality of a work to arouse the interest of the reader and the desire to read more ?