ABSTRACT
In this chapter the philosophies of Deleuze and Guattari are used as both tools of analysis and a way of understanding constructions of queer families in Cape Town, South Africa. In engaging the assimilationist vs. radicalization debate about same-sex marriage that was central in queer circles, it becomes evident that in South Africa there is a complex, simultaneous form of assimilation and innovation occurring in the construction of queer families by married same-sex couples. In the chapter, I argue that the negotiation of family roles, particularly gender roles, is a key site where assimilation and innovation take place. I argue that family formations of married same-sex couples embody the idea of the rhizome developed by Deleuze and Guattari: Queer family formations are not stable, but are “multiplicities” formed through “lines of flight” that form “becomings.” This means that queer family formations are involved in a complex back-and-forth process, negotiating the center and the margins.
