Complicating Kinship and Inheritance: Older Lesbians’ and Gay Men’s Will-Writing in England

TY - JOUR

T1 - Complicating Kinship and Inheritance

T2 - Older Lesbians’ and Gay Men’s Will-Writing in England

AU - Westwood, Sue

PY - 2015/8/10

Y1 - 2015/8/10

N2 - This article complicates the idea that lesbian and gay kinship is based primarily on friendship, voluntarism and being free from duty and obligation. It also offers a more nuanced understanding of wills as a rich source of evidence for making claims about kinship, family and relationships. It analyses conversations about will-writing with fifteen older lesbians and gay men, taken from interviews which formed part of a wider socio-legal study on the intersection of ageing, gender and sexuality (Westwood in Ageing, Gender and Sexuality: equality in later life. PhD thesis, School of Law, University of Keele, UK, 2015). The analysis identifies a wide range of kinship formations and composition going beyond “family of choice” narratives, and also both connections and disconnections between ties of love and affection and disposal of assets in wills. Participants’ will-writing reflected four types of prioritisation: prioritising children; prioritising friends; prioritising siblings; mixed priorities. In contrast with accounts of “families of choice” as being duty-free, a sense of duty, especially towards biological family members, was evident in a number of interviews. I suggest that wills can sometimes be a rich source of evidence about kinship, but only when analysis takes into account the complexities and contingencies which can be involved.

AB - This article complicates the idea that lesbian and gay kinship is based primarily on friendship, voluntarism and being free from duty and obligation. It also offers a more nuanced understanding of wills as a rich source of evidence for making claims about kinship, family and relationships. It analyses conversations about will-writing with fifteen older lesbians and gay men, taken from interviews which formed part of a wider socio-legal study on the intersection of ageing, gender and sexuality (Westwood in Ageing, Gender and Sexuality: equality in later life. PhD thesis, School of Law, University of Keele, UK, 2015). The analysis identifies a wide range of kinship formations and composition going beyond “family of choice” narratives, and also both connections and disconnections between ties of love and affection and disposal of assets in wills. Participants’ will-writing reflected four types of prioritisation: prioritising children; prioritising friends; prioritising siblings; mixed priorities. In contrast with accounts of “families of choice” as being duty-free, a sense of duty, especially towards biological family members, was evident in a number of interviews. I suggest that wills can sometimes be a rich source of evidence about kinship, but only when analysis takes into account the complexities and contingencies which can be involved.

KW - Family

KW - Gay

KW - Kinship

KW - Lesbian

KW - Relationships

KW - Wills

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84941076105&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10691-015-9287-3

DO - 10.1007/s10691-015-9287-3

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84941076105

SN - 0966-3622

VL - 23

SP - 181

EP - 197

JO - Feminist Legal Studies

JF - Feminist Legal Studies

IS - 2

ER -