Challenging the unthinkable: gay and lesbian parents between redefinition and exclusion in Italy

Despite the approval of the a law legally recognising same-sex relationships, and the on-going change of public attitudes towards Lgbt families and couples, the familial and parental projects of gay men and lesbian women keep being “unthinkable” within the Italian socio-cultural landscape, where the trope of nature is still a guiding ideal for the construction of both parental and kinship relationships. Drawing upon 29 qualitative interviews with gay men and lesbian women, we analyse how informants negotiate the persisting heteronormativity of the Italian context both in their intimate lives and in the 2encounter with the public sphere. We discuss the tensions between a process of redefinition of traditional family and kinship roles, and the persisting exclusion of Lgbt families and couples from the public sphere.