A Family Matter

by Claire Lynch

In the rare cases where the continued care of children by lesbian mothers was permitted by the court, the conditions imposed often contravened basic civil rights. Courts might forbid partners from living together, or from showing affection for each other while children were present. Families were often kept under the supervision of the local authority, leaving the threat of being separated hanging over them for years.

In the case of D v. D (1974) a woman’s copies of Spare Rib were presented as evidence of her radical feminism and, by extension, her unsuitability as a mother.

The eventual repeal of Section 28 (2003), the introduction of Civil Partnerships (2005), and then equal marriage legislation (2014), as well as legal access to IVF for same-sex couples (2009) has meant that “Parenting possibilities can now feature in the imagined futures of LGBTQ relationships.”

While the characters in this novel are all works of fiction, the words spoken by the lawyers and judge in the court scenes and repeated in the legal documents are not. Their words are included here as a reminder of how far away the recent past is. And how close.