Queering reproductive justice: Framing reproduction of gay men from a transnational perspective—Taiwan as a case

Abstract

This article uses Taiwan as an example to argue that reproductive justice for gay men should be conceptualised within social, legal, and political contexts. Taiwan is the first Asian country to legalise same‐sex marriage, yet the law favours heterosexual couples and denies LGBTQ+ reproductive rights. Thus, Taiwanese gay men seek third‐party reproduction overseas to become parents. This article exemplifies gay men's unequal conditions from a non‐Western perspective. I re‐examine scholarly literature on the interlocking concepts of reproductive justice, stratified reproduction, and queer reproduction to answer what reproductive justice gay men need and how their injustice position situates within and beyond the nation‐state borders. Drawing on the reproductive justice framework and studies of queer reproduction, this article proposes a transnational perspective to understand queer reproductive justice through the case that elucidates the specific context of Taiwanese gay men. This article aims to make two contributions. Firstly, it reconsiders the reproductive framework from a transnational perspective to argue that gay men's reproductive justice should be conceptualised at the intersection with other dimensions of injustice. Secondly, this article suggests that the transnational approach could be applied as a critical lens for future research in queer reproduction and reproductive justice.

Gendering the beginning of life: Taiwanese gay fathers’ navigation of preimplantation genetic diagnosis‐assisted sex selection in transnational third‐party reproduction

“…Scholarly literature on reproductive governance in Taiwan indicated that due to legal exclusions, LGBTQ+ people sought assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) as ‘a remedy for social infertility and justice’ (Wu, 2023, p. 149). With the increasing cross‐border reproductive care (CBRC), gay men from Taiwan and many other countries where ARTs and surrogacy are not accessible have been seeking transnational third‐party reproduction as a proactive action against reproductive injustice since they are forced into reproductive exile (Chen, 2023a; Inhorn & Patrizio, 2012; Smietana et al., 2018). A few countries provide altruistic surrogacy, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK.…”