Beyond the Western gaze: Families of choice in Poland

Research into queer intimacies and families has been largely conducted from and about the Western (specifically Anglo-American) context. It very often (re)presents a hegemonic, mono-normative paradigm and vision of intimacy and family life, and profoundly influences the scope and methods of such research in other localities. This article uses findings from a large-scale mixed methods study called Families of Choice in Poland which was designed to examine the diversity of intimate and familial practices of non-heterosexual lives. It highlights how geo-temporal conditions shape LGBTQ relational lives and, as such, unsettles the dominant Western knowledge on queer kinship.