Béres-Deak, Rita

Same-sex parents have been hailed by several researchers (e.g. Du Chesne and Bradley 2007, Sullivan 2004) as the forerunners of a new, revolutionary form of family, which – among other things – questions the patriarchal gender norms and the narrow biogenetic basis of kinship permeating mainstream discourses. Such a narrow understanding of family characterizes Hungarian law and public discourses, officially and practically excluding same-sex relationships from the realm of kinship. In contrast to these, same-sex couples create their own alternative family forms. However, these family forms are not completely independent of mainstream discourses, but borrow concepts from it, shaping them to suit their own purposes.

My research, which is based on internet forum threads in the early 2010s on two Hungarian LGBTQ websites, explores the gender dimensions of family models found in the LGBTQ community. I demonstrate that discourses within the Hungarian LGBTQ community do reproduce some gender stereotypes, but at the same time necessarily question the heteronormative, patriarchal family propagated by mainstream discourses. This is different in the case of lesbians and gay men, but both groups challenge mainstream family models in different ways.

Rita Béres-Deák has a BA in English Language and Literature, Finnish Language and Culture and Cultural Anthropology. She got her PhD in Gender Studies at the Central European University, her dissertation’s title was Balloons with Candles: Hungarian Same-Sex Couples and their Families of Origin Renegotiating Kinship. After teaching one term at the Gender Studies Department of CEU, she is currently an independent researcher. She has worked in several LGBTQ+ and human rights activist projects (Labrisz Lesbian Association school project, Together Against School Bullying Coalition, Atlasz LGBTQ Sports Association, Living Library) and is a regular contributor to the LGBTQ+ news website identitasmagazin.co. Currently she is living in Vienna, where she is involved in activism against gender-based domestic violence. Her book, Queer Families in Hungary, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2019.

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