Relational Sovereignty: The Palestinian Family as a Site of Decolonial Queering

J Homosex. 2026 Apr 1:1-22. doi: 10.1080/00918369.2026.2654056. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This article provides the first examination focused exclusively on the family lives of queer Palestinians, moving beyond reductive Western media and pinkwashing portrayals that often spectacularize sporadic violence. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 53 queer Palestinians living in Palestine-Israel, this study utilizes a decolonial framework to analyze the family as a primary institution of relational sovereignty. The findings suggest that while initial familial responses to “coming out” are often shaped by pathologizing frameworks-such as “disease” or “possession”-these reactions are frequently defensive maneuvers against communal surveillance and settler-colonial scrutiny. The study identifies a dynamic process of “relational repair,” where families perform domestic labor to reinterpret gender and sexual norms, shifting from initial rejection toward affirmation. By centering these everyday negotiations, I argue that the Palestinian family is an adaptive site capable of enacting its own decolonial transformations. This transition disrupts Zionist pinkwashing narratives by positioning the family not as an irredeemable site of repression, but as a resilient foundation for queer survival and indigenous belonging. Ultimately, queer liberation is shown to be inextricably linked to the endurance and evolution of the family unit under the weight of apartheid.

PMID:41918480 | DOI:10.1080/00918369.2026.2654056