PhD Candidate Kimberly Rhoten publishes in Sexualities
PhD candidate Kimbery Rhoten publishes a new article appearing in Sexualities, “U.S. Family Law Along the Slippery Slope: the limits of a sexual rights strategy for polyamorous parents”. This paper reviews polyamorous parents’ efforts towards achieving legal and societal legitimatization, finding significant parallels with legal strategies LGBTQ parents utilized to seek legal recognition and protection prior to federal recognition of same-sex marriage. This paper highlights the inadequacies of such a formal sexual citizenship approach, finding that a limited strategy of accumulating specific sexual rights fails to address non-monogamy’s more radical cultural presence as well as the (non-legal) informal aspects of belonging needed to improve the livability of polyamorous parents’ and their children’s lives. This paper concludes with recommendations for improving the treatment of non-traditional families including LGBTQ, polyamorous, and other non-traditional families, both within and outside the legal institution. Please click here to read.