Session 'You get to pick your family*'
For the LGBTQIA+ community, family often has an expanded meaning: many queer people, especially trans people, lack the (emotional) support of their parents. We want to go beyond the heteronormative context and show people how they can shape their own families, experience community and take care of each other. Leah Petersen and Sascha Sistenich, both doctoral students at the University of Bonn, will present their research on the topic. In a subsequent panel discussion, their perspectives will be complemented by Birgit Brockerhoff (Fachstelle Regenbogenfamilien NRW) and Lenny Streit (Projekt Trans*sensibel) from Queeren Netzwerk NRW e.V.
Registration and time period
Date and time
Monday, 26 May 2025
4:15 Uhr - 6:00 p.m.
Location
DigiHub
Am Hauptbahnhof 6
53111 Bonn
Room: San Francisco
Registration
Please register until May 11.
Schedule
- Lecture: 'Discrimination in the parental home—the dynamics between the gender identity of young trans* people and their parental living environment'
Leah Petersen, University of Bonn - Lecture: 'Families of choice and communities of care: queer perspectives on ‘family’ in a diverse society'
Sascha Sistenich, University of Bonn - Panel discussion with
- Birgit Brockerhoff (Queeres Netzwerk NRW, Fachstelle Regenbogenfamilien NRW)
- Leah Petersen (University of Bonn)
- Sascha Sistenich (University of Bonn)
- Lenny Streit (Queeres Netzwerk NRW; Projekt Trans*sensibel)
The panel will be moderated by Mia Wietkamp from Bonn FM.
The session examines the reorganization of family structures by queer people, especially in the context of the challenges posed by multiple crises and the rise of anti-democratic politics. Structural discrimination in the traditional core family and neoliberal insecurities often force queer people to live outside traditional family models and form families of choice and communities of care. These care-centered networks extend traditional kinship structures and integrate relationships with friends and neighbors. The session will highlight and discuss the reasons why there needs to be a change of perspective on “the family” and how such structures create spaces for non-normative communities and respond to existing challenges presented by the government, the legal situation and the economy. It will also emphasize the importance of care as a social practice that promotes individual and collective resilience and opens up new, sustainable ways of living in a diverse society.
Lecturers
Leah Petersen
(- / dey)
Leah Petersen is a PhD student at the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn. Leah is investigating the experiences of discrimination faced by trans people at home and how these experiences are inscribed in the bodies of trans people. In this way, these experiences are reproduced again and again and can become deeply embedded in people's biographies. At the same time, it becomes clear that these are not individual experiences of discrimination, but that these experiences are deeply rooted in social power hierarchies.
'In order to understand the experiences of trans people in our society in all their complexity, it is essential to take into account the experiences in the parental home. It must be recognised how deeply these supposedly individual experiences are connected to social structures and that the parental home is a highly political space.'
Sascha Sistenich
(he/him)
Sascha Sistenich has studied Transcultural Studies/Cultural Anthropology and Multilingual Communication at the TH Köln, Universidad de Granada (2014-2018) and the University of Bonn (2018-2021). He works as a research assistant at the Department of Cultural Analysis and Cultural Anthropology and at the Department of Anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn. Since 2022 he has been doing his doctorate on queer activism and queer utopias and future designs of communities prioritizing solidarity and care. Sascha is a representative of Institute XI of the Faculty of Arts and was awarded the Maria von Linden Prize of the University of Bonn in 2023 for his commitment to equality in research and teaching.
'Queer communities can serve as examples for us to rethink familial, relational, friendly, romantic and sexual relationships and help making these forms of relationships function as a political practice of alternative, more just futures.'
Birgit Brockerhoff
(she/her)
Birgit Brockerhoff leads the Fachstelle Regenbogenfamilien NRW. It is part of Queeres Netzwerk NRW, which is based in Cologne. The centre represents the interests of queer families at state level and provides networking, visibility and empowerment services for queer (rainbow) families in North-Rhine Westphalia. The centre also provides specialist knowledge to family associations and family-related institutions.
Birgit Brockerhoff is a qualified educationalist and has many years of experience in education, networking and committee work, particularly in the areas of queer family education and media skills training.
'Family is diverse. Family includes all forms of life in which people live and experience social responsibility, care and solidarity.'
Lenny Streit
(he/him)
Lenny Streit is part of the project coordination team of Trans*sensibel - Supporting caregivers of young trans and non-binary people. This project is part of the Queer Network NRW e.V. Trans*sensibel supports and connects caregivers of young trans and non-binary people such as parents, siblings or grandparents, and offers qualification programmes for professionals in (partially) inpatient child and youth welfare services in NRW.
Lenny Streit B.A. Social Work and M.A. Empowerment Studies has many years of experience in educational and anti-discrimination work in the areas of sexual and gender diversity and the history of National Socialism.
'Young trans* and non-binary people need spaces in which they can be who they are - this also includes the family - recognition and security in finding their identity start at home.'
Contact und Organization
Ruth Ellen Bischoff
Dechenstraße 3-11
53115 Bonn
Julia Lindenberg
Dechenstraße 3-11
53115 Bonn