In the past few decades, gays and lesbians, along with their
families, have become more visible members of Canadian society,
enjoying increasing levels of legal recognition. In Transforming
Law's Family, Fiona Kelly explores the complex issues
encountered by planned lesbian families as they work to define their
parental rights, roles, and family structures within the normatively
heterosexual tenets of family law.
While Canadian courts recognize lesbian parenthood, they do so only
to the degree that lesbian families are equivalent to heterosexual
families in form and structure. Issues that are largely unique to
planned lesbian families, such as the legal status of known sperm
donors or non-biological mothers, remain undefined within the existing
legal framework. Drawing on numerous interviews with lesbian mothers,
Transforming Law's Family sheds light on changing
definitions of family and suggests a model for law reform that allows
for the legal recognition of alternative forms of parentage.
The first empirical study in Canada to address the legal dimensions of
planned lesbian families, this book makes an important contribution to
family law, queer studies, and law reform literature.