A university student has launched a search for lesbian and gay people with homosexual siblings to take part in a new study, this month.
Ross Robinson, who is in the third year of a Media and Cultural Studies degree at the University of Sussex, is spending the summer working on a research project with colleagues at the university to explore relationships between gay people who are directly related, such as parents, siblings or offspring, or who are considered ‘family’ such as god-parents, uncles and aunts and family friends.
“I’d like to speak to anyone with lesbian or gay family members, be they godparents, second cousins, anyone; not necessarily blood relations," he says.
"In the interviews I’ll be talking about identity, how people choose to identify themselves and then their relationship with their family and those they consider to be their family. We’re trying to understand the connection between identity and your family and how have they helped you understand who you are.”
At the end of the project Robinson will be producing an online resource where members of the public can listen to segments of the interviews which he hopes can also be used by the media as a way of changing perceptions and portrayals of relationships between gay family members.
The research team will also be writing an academic report about queer genealogy and queer identities in an effort to expand on the little existing research in this area.
Anyone interested in taking part should contact Ross Robinson on queering.genealogy@gmail.com or 07522 051124.
