Rainbow Families

See our Facebook page for our historic statement from the 2018 Asia-Pacific Rainbow Families Delegates: Facebook announcement.

In Asia and the Pacific, discrimination and stigma limits LGBTI people’s ability to create or protect their family.

Many countries in Asia and the Pacific Islands are still striving for social and legal acceptance and recognition. The laws in almost all jurisdictions appear to be blind to rainbow families. There is much fear and anxiety with the reality being that families may lose their children if they are found to be LGBTI. This leaves families with a permanent sense of insecurity, knowing that they do not have legal protections or rights. Much discussion surrounds children feeling the burden of stigma and discrimination, and in some cultures, a shared pressure felt by some forced to lie about their family, including asking their children to lie.

In 2017 Planet Ally helped create history by co-founding with the International Family Equality Day (IFED), the Asia-Pacific Rainbow Families Forum. In 2018, Planet Ally and IFED host the forum for the second time, from the 11th to the 13th of May in Hong Kong. We were immensely proud to bring even more representation, more country delegates and more visibility to LGBTQ people and their families from the Asia-Pacific region.

Planet Ally self-funding most of the event, supporting many activists who did not have grant funding to attend. Sparking Change also came on board this year, providing the Asia Pacific rainbow family movers and shakers and social change makers with strategic storytelling training to better advocate for and tell their stories of their experiences of being a rainbow family in the Asia-Pacific region, along with strategic advocacy training to help create positive action from this event.