The project, titled “Rethinking Queer Kinship: LGBTIQ Families with Children in Central and Eastern Europe (QUEERSHIP),”* will receive approximately €2.5 million in funding.

The ERC announced the results of its Advanced Grant competition in June, selecting 281 top researchers across Europe—including four from Poland—to receive a total of €721 million for cutting-edge scientific projects.

Mizielińska’s research will explore the everyday lives, relationships, and needs of LGBTIQ+ families in Poland, Hungary, Czechia, and Croatia, marking the first comparative, interdisciplinary study of its kind in the region.

“Marginalisation of Central and Eastern Europe in research on queer kinship and family creates a serious gap in the understanding of the global dynamics of LGBTIQ+ families,” said Mizielińska. “Dominant theories, derived mainly from English and American contexts, often ignore the variety of family structures and practices in other regions. The QUEERSHIP project is a response to this gap, offering the first transnational, interdisciplinary queer kinship study in Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Croatia.”

The project focuses on families in which at least one parent identifies as non-heterosexual or non-cisgender. These “queer families” often differ fundamentally from traditional family models, being based not on blood ties or legal structures, but on chosen relationships and social bonds.

“The way LGBTIQ+ families function in this part of Europe may be different than in Anglo-Saxon contexts. Therefore, the QUEERSHIP project will be carried out in Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Croatia, which will allow us to develop a multidimensional, socio-cultural model of queer kinship in this region,” Mizielińska explained.

The project will examine a wide range of family forms: same-sex couples with or without children, parents who are transgender or non-binary, co-parenting arrangements without romantic involvement, polyamorous family constellations, and single queer individuals raising children.

Children in these families may come from previous heterosexual relationships, as well as through adoption, in vitro fertilization, insemination, or deliberate co-parenting agreements between friends.

“We will listen to the voices of LGBTIQ+ families, but also their loved ones—friends and further relatives, and people who provide them with professional support. We will consider the perspective of activists and specialists. All to better capture the complexity of their everyday life,” Mizielińska said.

“We will also observe them in everyday and exceptional situations to best understand their functioning in various aspects of life,” she added.

In Poland, no official data exists on the number of children being raised in LGBTIQ+ households. National censuses do not account for sexual orientation or gender identity, same-sex partnerships cannot be legally recognized, and many queer families avoid public disclosure due to stigma and fear of discrimination.

Nonetheless, based on available research and international comparisons, experts estimate that tens of thousands of children in Poland are being raised in queer families. Mizielińska’s earlier work suggests that of the more than two million non-heteronormative people in Poland, nearly half live in intimate relationships—often forming families without legal or institutional support.

“LGBTIQ+ people often experience rejection from families of origin, but the birth of their children sometimes changes their grandparents' attitude and the bond is rebuilt,” Mizielińska noted.

To fully understand these family dynamics, the project will use a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, including long-term ethnographic fieldwork, discourse analysis, structured interviews, and surveys.

“An important aspect of the project will be to take into account different points of view and research methods,” she explained. “We have to look not only at what happens within queer families themselves, but also at the networks of support and interaction surrounding them—from friends to professionals.”

The project will be conducted at the Faculty of Sociology of the University of Warsaw. Mizielińska will soon begin assembling an international team of researchers to work alongside her.

Dr. Joanna Mizielińska is a sociologist recognized internationally for her research in gender, sexuality, and family studies. She previously led the “Families of Choice in Poland” project from 2013–2016, and was a Fulbright Scholar at Princeton University.

She has also conducted research in Finland and Sweden, and her work has been published widely in top academic journals.

“This project is about giving visibility to those who are often invisible in public discourse, law, and academic research. It’s about listening, documenting, and building knowledge that reflects the real, diverse lives of queer families in Central and Eastern Europe,” she said.

Katarzyna Czechowicz (PAP)

kap/ bar/