I definitely think it’s important that we challenge the idea (or at least the idea of the importance) of the nuclear family. In the Beyond Marriage article, it is pointed out that a majority of people in fact, do not live in a nuclear family and yet, it is presented as the only “legitimate” type of family in society and in the government. The concept discredits so many valuable family dynamics that exist such a queer families, single-parent families, chosen-families, childless families, extended families, (unmarried) partnerships, care-givers, etc.
Not everyone is born into the kind of family that will support and protect them, so many people create their own communities for survival. In Paris is Burning, you see the Houses have a family-dynamic that consists of a “mother” who cares for their family members, many of who are queer people who’s born-families have rejected them. Is that not what the critical structure of a family is? How they care for each other as opposed to just who they consist of?
I think that shifting the value away from the aesthetics of a nuclear family will open the door to alternative types of families who are just as valid and deserve just as much of the respect and benefits as any other family does.
