Queering reproductive justice: Memories, mistakes, and motivations to transform kinship

Why does a queer feminist approach to reproductive justice matter? Why might it matter for youth who build their families while navigating the surveillance of a large urban U.S. child welfare system? Why might it matter for queer transracial families like my own and for other “disruptive families”? This autoethnographic account shadows my ethnography with Black adolescent mothers and their children living under surveillance. The works stems from an obligation to shift my gaze to myself, as I follow a long reflexive tradition in feminist anthropology around exploring my vulnerabilities and changing point of view. I argue that queering reproductive justice reveals diverse forms of kinship and care networks to motivate coalition building across families. Queer Black activists and feminists have consistently offered critical insights into how to make the rallying cry of Black Lives Matter more inclusive of Black trans and cis girls and women, as well as for gender-expansive Black people and families. As a multi-city and global coalition erupts and demands the liberation of Black lives, the time is ripe for a queer coalition for reproductive justice.