As Erin Gallagher-Cohoon was researching the history of queer families in Canada for her PhD dissertation, it struck her that one voice was consistently absent in the archives.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on the records, I ended up writing a history that was more centred on the parents than on children\u2019s experiences or perspectives,\u201d she says. \u201cTo me, this was a really unfortunate gap in the story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that Gallagher-Cohoon is a postdoctoral researcher at Brock University, she is aiming to find the voices of \u201cqueerspawn\u201d \u2014 children raised by queer parents \u2014 both in historical records and in interviews with those children who are now adults.<\/p>\n
She is seeking to understand queerspawn experiences from the 1970s to the early 2000s as they went to school, accessed health care, watched TV, listened to radio and had other encounters with the world around them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did they navigate a sociopolitical environment that was hostile to queer families?\u201d Gallagher-Cohoon says. \u201cHow involved were they in queer activist circles? How did they make sense of their own lives within the historical context in which they were living?\u201d<\/p>\n
Based in the Department of Child and Youth Studies, Gallagher-Cohoon is beginning her research where her dissertation left off: the thoughts and words of queerspawn children caught up in family law cases.<\/p>\n
She is, for example, scouring archival sources to find children\u2019s thoughts and words in cases where queer parents, primarily lesbian mothers, sought sole or joint custody after the break-up of their heterosexual marriages or partnerships.<\/p>\n
\u201cOften it was their ex-partner taking them to court for custody rights, claiming that the queer parent was unfit because of their sexuality,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Gallagher-Cohoon is also looking at cases involving gay and lesbian couples who were wishing to foster or adopt children.<\/p>\n
Although it\u2019s early days in her work, she\u2019s noticing some trends.<\/p>\n
\u201cAutobiographies of people who grew up in in queer families and are now adults reflecting on their childhood talk about pressures to present their families as being normal, to hide any part of their family experience that was more complex,\u201d says Gallagher-Cohoon. \u201cThe fear was, and is, that any negative experience would be used not only against their parents but also against other queer families.\u201d<\/p>\n
To find original materials that reflect children\u2019s voices, Gallagher-Cohoon is searching court documents, academic literature, files in activist organizations and other sources.<\/p>\n
These materials include paintings, poetry and transcripts of interviews with children, among other artifacts.<\/p>\n
Gallagher-Cohoon refers to a drawing she found from a child reflecting the court process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt depicts an oversized mother in this protective pose kind-of battling it out with the judge,\u201d she says. \u201cIt shows the kind of stresses that kids were feeling in the court as they feared that they were going to be taken away from their parents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallagher-Cohoon says a view of the past puts the present into perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really important, especially as we’re seeing renewed attacks on queer and trans youth, that we take a perspective that really honours the uniqueness of age in this story,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Gallagher-Cohoon plans to also research children\u2019s engagement with queer activism.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially children were part of broader movements, including queer parenting groups like the Lesbian Mothers\u2019 Defence Fund,\u201d she says. \u201cBy 1990, though, some queerspawn were beginning to organize amongst themselves in their own interests. This story of youth-led activism can tell us much about children\u2019s political agency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallagher-Cohoon, who joined Brock earlier this year, is researching under the direction of Associate Professor of Child and Youth Studies Hannah Dyer.<\/p>\n