MOTHERHOOD IN THE BOSOM OF LESBIAR COUPLES: NOVELTY AND PERSISTENTE IN THE FAMILY AND MATERNAL MODELS

In February 2004 a judicial resolution that gave the parental rights to a woman for the biological daughters of her female partner1 caught the attention in the press for a few days, bringing to the surface publicly motherhood in the bosom of lesbian couples that until that moment had remained almost unperceived. Later the legalisation of homosexual marriages promoted, for a few weeks, a heated debate with respect to the possible bad effects this could bring about on children brought up by a homosexual couple. The debate, however, tended to centre on the masculine couples and hardly mentioned a situation which is in fact being produced more or less invisibly since 1988; the formation of lesbian families via the resource of reproductive techniques. My interest in lesbian motherhood derives from the belief that it is necessary to widen the concept of motherhood, excessively enclosed in a unique, inflexible family idea, that is to say, a nuclear family comprised of a man, a woman and their children. It is for that reason that I suggest talking about “other ” mothers, givin