Marie-Eveline & Hélène

Marie-Eveline (she)

Hélène (she)

19-year-old child of Marie-Eveline

13-year-old child of Marie-Eveline

17-year-old daughter of Hélène

15-year-old son of Hélène

lesbian couple, blended family, prior heterosexual relationship, insemination, BIPOC, multiracial couple

Region: Montreal 

Marie-Eveline and Hélène, who have known each other for some time, have been a couple for less than a year. Marie-Eveline, who believed she had to choose between being lesbian or having children, had two children in heterosexual relationships. Hélène, for her part, had two children in a homoparental family with her ex-spouse. The two women in their forties are now a multiracial couple in a relationship that began at a distance.

Marie-Eveline identifies as a Black woman, lesbian, francophone, believer, and all of these aspects of her identity are important. Growing up in Senegal, even though she already knew she had an attraction to women since adolescence, she suppressed her sexual orientation, as she knew it could have dangerous consequences for her safety. She experienced a multiracial relationship with Hélène, who is a white woman of French descent. The two women, who entered into a relationship when one lived in Gatineau and the other in Montreal, are still discovering and exploring their new family dynamics with their respective teenagers.