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* “Oddkin stakes the claim that the shape of kinship isn’t a birthright but a choice, that the people we choose to gather with are connected to us in ways at least equivalent to those we were born alongside. However odd that gathering may be—and Haraway posits that oddkin includes not only people but every living thing around us, the trees and bird... See more

Mandy Brown • Oddkin

Kinship is so central to small-scale societies that it might legitimately be regarded as one of the main organising principles of the human social world.

Robin Dunbar • Friends: Understanding the Power of our Most Important Relationships

But most serious of all, Judge Davies wrote, was that “Thompson and Sharon are a family of affinity, which ought to be accorded respect.”

Lillian Faderman • The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle

There’s coercion through kinship ties — aka, the person in need of care is my father, or my Aunt, or my kid, and it is my responsibility to provide it for them, even if I don’t particularly want to or am even able to.

Anne Helen Petersen • Forced to Care

“Maybe my friends – my chosen family – could be the loves of my life. After all, chosen families are a cornerstone of queer culture, especially for those whose biological families don’t accept them. As we grow into ourselves, we amass a network of friends who embrace us as we are and nurture us in ways we never were while we were growing up. My fri

Early tribes of humans were probably similar to tribes of other apes—glued together mostly by family ties. Kinship is an obvious natural glue because animals are programmed to be interested in the immortality of those with genes most similar to them—so humans are more likely to cede individual self-interest to a group when that group is family. Tha... See more

Tim Urban • A Story of Stories

That gang or posse that we imagine is sustaining us by the bonds we share is in fact a conglomeration of individuals who are just as fucked up as we are and just as terrified.

Steven Pressfield • Turning Pro

Martha’s not my child, I’d say, as if I was joking, as if my feelings weren’t hurt. I would say: She’s my roommate. Now I can say, she was not my child, but she was the first member of my family. Martha was my best friend and my witness. I had been on my own for so long, swimming upstream, and now I had a partner in it. There’s a bright line betwee... See more

Jean • My best friend and my witness

A Friend she sees, a Friend you will always be. Women have boyfriends and girlfriends. If you aren’t fucking her, you’re her girlfriend.