"Heteronormativity at Every Turn": The Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Parents in Ireland

Irish law allows for some LGBTQI + parents to be jointly recognized as legal parents of their children, but legal recognition is dependent on the mode of conception of the child and, as a result, many LGBTQI + parent families cannot secure full legal recognition of their families. Because these families fall outside of the legally recognized parenting pathways, limited empirical research has been conducted to understand their experiences. This article presents the findings of a survey that was conducted with 99 Irish LGBTQI + parents to investigate the nuances of, and legal difficulties faced by, the families in obtaining legal recognition of their family relationships. The article presents the findings of a bivariate descriptive analysis that was used to analyze the quantitative data and a thematic analysis used to examine the qualitative open-ended comments. The results serve to identify the difficulties experienced by respondents in obtaining legal recognition of their family relationships in Ireland. Following this analysis, the article considers how Irish law might better respond to the reality of these parenting arrangements.