Global Babies, Local Science–Transnational Reproductive Migration for Lesbian Families in Taiwan

Drawing on feminist science, technology, and society studies and postcolonial feminism, this article examines how lesbian couple's participation in transnational assisted reproductive technology (ART) subverts concepts of heteronormativity, positivism, and neoliberalism. As a result of being considered non-legitimate users of ARTs by states and markets, Taiwanese lesbian couples are required to navigate a complex familial, legal, emotional, and institutional landscape to realize their desire for having babies. I show how during this process, they creatively assemble meanings out of established systems be means of juxtaposing the internal contradictions between these systems. My research contributes to a debate between whether homosexual communities reproduce dominant institutions or create their own norms outside of that by suggesting that it is neither. Rather, the findings suggest that their very participation changes the repertoire of these institutions, which I call subversive participation.