Beyond Choice: Constrained Navigation of Surrogacy Destinations Among Chinese Gay Men

ABSTRACT

This article examines how Chinese gay men navigate surrogacy destinations under conditions of legal complexity, unequal resources and limited recognition of gay parenthood. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 32 Chinese gay fathers across 30 participant sets whose reproductive journeys involved domestic and transnational surrogacy arrangements, it conceptualises destination selection as constrained navigation rather than the expression of individual preference. Participants did not choose from a neutral menu of countries. Instead, they compared, rejected and revisited unevenly available routes as their circumstances and understandings changed. Four interacting mechanisms shaped whether a route became actionable: economic resources, legal recognition, networked trust and anticipated family outcomes. Actionability was therefore relational and provisional: a destination could be formally available or desirable yet remain practically impossible to initiate. By identifying the destination‐level process through which reproductive possibilities become workable courses of action, the article extends scholarship on reproductive navigation, cross‐border reproductive care and stratified reproduction. It demonstrates that inequality structures not only access to surrogacy but also the capacity to navigate among reproductive routes.