International Family Equality Day 2023: Power Up Families With the motto “Power up families”, this year’s IFED calls on all families to embrace their uniqueness and to stand up to claim equality and justice. Join in the 12th edition of IFED and help powering up all types of families! The beauty of mutual empowerment This year’s IFED celebration emphasizes the fact that families can only thrive when their members intentionally commit and contribute to the wellbeing of the family. “By sharing our time, goals, challenges and memories and through open and honest communication, we power up our families”, says IFED-founder Maria von Känel (Switzerland), adding that “by making our families stronger, our families make us stronger in return. We all need to welcome and respect our differences and cultivate our readiness to grow together – both in the context of our families as well as in society in general.”

International Family Equality Day 2022: Family equality is everybody’s business This year’s IFED motto, “Family equality is everybody’s business”, invites everyone to celebrate diversity and support families in all their colors and forms. “In many ways, rainbow families’ everyday life is the same as for traditional families,” says IFED Co-President Matcha Phorn-In. “And yet, too many of us still experience discrimination on a daily basis – whether it means being denied parental leave or needing authorization to pick up your own child from school, whether it is not being represented on official forms or, worse, having to hide your family for fear of prosecution, to name just a few examples. Rainbow families are just families, but the difference lies in the fact that in many Asian countries, e.g. Thailand, the lack of marriage equality also means a lack of economic, social, cultural support and protections. As the right to family life is a basic human right for all citizens regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics, advancing that right through marriage equality is everyone’s business.”

International Family Equality Day 2021: Being our authentic best The motto of this year’s IFED edition was “Being our authentic best”. It emphasized how crucial it is for all rainbow families to be visible as well as proud of who they are and of the family they have built, irrespective of what may be considered conventional in society. “Family is such an integral pillar in life”, says IFED Co-President Benny Odongo (Kenya). “The definition of the term, however, doesn’t matter. What counts are our families, our history as well as the loving bonds and support systems that we create.”

International Family Equality Day 2020: Family Diversity in Education Join this year’s IFED celebration and help strengthening our call for representation of family diversity in the educational systems all across the globe. Despite the challenges arising from the Covid-19 crisis, the International Family Equality Day (IFED) will be celebrated joyfully on the 3rd of May, with this year’s motto focusing on the need to integrate the idea of family diversity in the education system.

«Bringing visibility to family diversity» International Family Equality Day (IFED) celebrated at the European Parliament for the first time. The event was made possible with the support of the Intergroup on LGBT Rights of the European Parliament. A conference addressed in particular the situation of European rainbow families as regards freedom of movement, calling on European Union institutions to take all the necessary measures to make freedom of movement also a reality for rainbow families.