ABSTRACT
This chapter, "Queer Spawn Talks Back", examines perspectives of children born and/or brought up in families of choice in Poland. Drawing on findings from four focus groups with children of different ages as well as data from ethnographic part (interviews with children and their observation), it examines their views on their families and their evaluation of bonds with queer parents. In general, their narratives reveal warm and close family relations. However, distinguished two paths regarding their reactions to the disclosure of parents (a trajectory of unnamed experience and a trajectory of unexpected change) have a huge impact on their future relations with queer parents. The analysis reveals that teenagers and young adults carefully navigate the disclosure process concerning their families’ queerness, both towards their peers as well as in relation to their relatives. Facing familial homophobia (i.e., the homophobia of their grandparents or the other biological parent), they develop diverse ways of dealing with it. Moreover, they complain about the lack of recognition of their family constellations, paying particular attention to the broken ties with a social/co-parent in case of separation of their queer parents. The chapter argues that queer children are an essential agent within queer families whose role complicates the dichotomic picture between choice and blood.
