Doing Intimate Citizenship: Resisting the Heterosexual Matrix Across and Beyond Intimacy.

In Spain, important changes have taken place based on local and European movements advocating for LGBT formal rights and stemming from a favourable national political context. Same sex marriage and adoption were regulated in 2005, but lesbian and bisexual women are still struggling, often on a daily basis, against invisibility, hostility and absence of recognition. This article draws from interviews conducted in Madrid about lesbian coupledom within the project "INTIMATE—Citizenship, Care and Choice: The Micropolitics of Intimacy in Southern Europe". To address the liberalization of a wide range of intimate transformations, I use the concept of intimate citizenship to explore how women in the context of lesbian coupledom struggle for the right to fulfil their intimate lives, and at the same time contribute for social change. Furthermore, I analyse the narratives of women in lesbian coupledom paying particular attention to the extent to which they are living precarious lives in contexts as diverse as families of origin, public spaces and state-based institutions. The article also suggests forms of resisting the dominant heterosexist system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]