Repronormativity and the Reproduction of the Nation-State: The State and Sexuality Collide

This article seeks to explain the consistent margins between popular support for same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption/parenting. I posit that the paradigm of repronormativity explains these differences, in permitting only “legitimate,” state-sanctioned, heteronormative reproduction. Through three case studies—Poland's strict abortion policies, France's law against lesbians utilizing artificial reproduction technologies, and Sweden's history of sterilizing trans individuals—I will demonstrate how not only does repronormativity select and enforce an inside/outside, in-group(s)/out-group(s) binary and legitimize only certain reproduction, it also tethers female sexuality to reproduction and creates an inevitability of reproduction.