Events/Education
DATE: Thursday 18th September 2014
TIME: 12 30pm - 2pm
VENUE: 18 College Green/0G/008
REGISTRATION: This is a free and open event but for numbers please register with h.bryson@qub.ac.uk, sandwich lunch will be at 12.30pm
SPEAKER: Daniel Monk, Birkbeck University
Sandwich lunch will be at 12.30pm
Daniel Monk will present a paper on the experiences of a gay couple who were rejected as foster parents because they were in an open relationship. He will examine different understandings of child welfare and the limits to equality.
A gay couple is welcomed by a progressive local authority as potential foster parents. But then the authority discovers that the couple are in an open relationship. What happened? What should happen?. This paper takes this real life story as a starting point for exploring a number of contemporary concerns: the limits to formal legal equality for gays and lesbians; shifting understandings of ‘the best interests of the child’ and adult sexuality; and the uses of ‘childhood’ in social policy.
Daniel Monk is a Reader in Law at Birkbeck, University of London and Director of the Birkbeck Institute for Gender and Sexuality. His research has explored children’s rights, home education, school exclusions, homophobic bullying and, most recently, inheritance.