Blog

Strong Safe Fabulous Honour Award Finalist

We are very excited that our family violence prevention program Strong Safe Fabulous is a finalist in the ACON Honour Awards! Strong Safe Fabulous has been recognised for providing support and resources...

We Built Our Family Through Foster Care

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Barnardos Australia Mark and Todd are foster carers with Barnardos Australia. They are currently caring for 3 children under 5 years of age. Here is their...

Inclusive Language On Medicare Forms

Bill Shorten’s recent intervention to reverse the use of gender-neutral language in a Medicare form was disappointing to many people who value equality and inclusion. It was particularly disappointing to me and...

LGBTQ+ Neurodiverse Families Facebook Group

Our Rainbow Families Neurodiverse Families Facebook Group is for LGBTIQ+ parents and carers who are Autistic and/or ADHD and may also have children who are. We welcome families who identify as being...

Volunteer Profile - Snez

Meet Snez the wonderful volunteer who is putting on the new catch ups in the Panania, Liverpool, Bankstown area. Snez tells us about her family, why she wanted to start a group...

Panania, Liverpool and Bankstown Rainbow Families Group

The Panania, Liverpool, Bankstown Rainbow Families Group is taking off! We have had two very successful catch ups with around 8 families attending. Everyone has talked about how lovely it is to connect with...

Making Rainbow Families Seminar

This month we held our Making Rainbow Families Seminar – a day for LGBTQ+ people considering parenthood to explore the options and meet the people that can help make their dream a...

Bounce - Resilience Camp

Bounce is a weekend resilience camp for Rainbow Families held in Narrabeen. This year was our biggest camp with over 100 people attending from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. An action packed...

Family Pride

Family Pride is a celebration of family diversity. It is an opportunity to bring together our families and the community to celebrate, socialise and reaffirm that we are strongest when we stand...

Parenting Teens Webinar Series

Following a survey of the needs and challenges of LGBTQ+ parents and carers, Rainbow Families is hosting a monthly online webinar series to equip parents and carers with knowledge and evidence-based strategies...

We Want To Hear About Your Experience With Childcare

Rainbow Families, working with Early Childhood Australia, the peak early childhood advocacy organisation, is working to develop professional learning resources for educators on family diversity and how to support children of LGBTQ+...

Join Our Governance Committee

Do you enjoy dotting the Is and crossing the Ts? Are you passionate about supporting LGBTQ+ families, and removing discrimination they face? Are you interested in ensuring Rainbow Families Inc continues to...

Making our concerns heard in the 2022 federal election

Rainbow Families has asked Labor, the LNP and the Greens where they stand on issues that are important to our community. We will provide their responses in our newsletter, website and social...

Growing Your Family: Learn About Open Adoption And Fostering

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Barnardos Australia An increasing number of LGBTQ+ parents in Australia are building their families through fostering and open adoption. But many people in our community don’t...

Rainbow Families First Parent Peer Support Program Draws To A Close

November last year saw the launch of our first Parent Peer Support Program. The free program ran for 20 weeks and involved LGBTQ+ parents who were either seeking or wanting to give...

LGBTIQA+ and pronouns explained

Ever wondered what the acronym means. What all the letters stand for. And how to use pronouns. Lars from our Youth Council is featured in this quick explainer video.

Growing Your Family: Fertility Treatment Considerations For Same-Sex Female Couples

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by IVF Australia It has been said that when you have a child it is like a piece of your heart is now walking around in the...

Launch alert: My Shadow is Pink

My Shadow is Pink. Book and Short Film My Shadow is Pink is a ~10 minute animated short film about a young boy, born with a pink shadow that loves princess, fairies...

Are you passionate about supporting and uplifting community?

Are you passionate about supporting and uplifting community? Perhaps you have an idea or project in mind? We need YOU! Our volunteer Community, Education and Welfare Sub-Committee are on the lookout for...

My First Mardi Gras

Has your family never experienced the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade together before, but always wanted to? Well we are looking for a family just like yours! We are seeking...

Bush School - Free Tickets

The colours of the rainbow can be found everywhere in nature - Centennial Park is offering Rainbow Families free tickets to their Bush School. Bush School is a unique nature play program for...

Volunteer Profile - Lara

Lara has been volunteering with Rainbow Families to help organise our recent sports carnival / end of year event. Lara replied to a call out we did in our newsletter looking for...

Thank You Vanessa

Vanessa, one of our founding Board members has stepped back from the Rainbow Families Board after nearly seven years of volunteering to support our community. Vanessa was at the first meetings of...

Activity Packs

Last month we sent out 200 activity packs to families across NSW thanks to the empowering and supporting local communities grants program. The packs were designed to help families who have struggled...

Youth Resource - What Do Your Kids Want In Our New Resource?

Our Youth Advisory Council is designing a resource for children and young people who live in rainbow families. They want to hear from you about what you think a youth resource should...

Proud Posters

We have some absolutely beautiful new posters available for you to download, print and hang up in your house, school or workplace. The posters are part of our #StrongSafeFabulous campaign which is...

Meet Steve - Our Development Specailst

We are delighted to welcome Steve Clarke to the Rainbow Families team. Steve is working part time as a Development Specialist - looking at new revenue opportunities for Rainbow Families so can...

Playgroup Is Back

We are excited to announce that Playgroup is back on in Erskineville! We have been in regular contact with the City of Sydney and Playgroup NSW about when we can restart our...

Bern's Lockdown Story

COVID-19: Testing us all By Rita Bratovich “Lockdown was like nothing I ever thought I would have to do. Jess and I both have pretty full-on full time jobs. Add to that...

#StrongSafeFabulous Website

#StrongSafeFabulous has launched a new website with a loads of resources for supporting families with LGBTIQA+ people in them. At #Strong#Safe#Fabulous we believe that all families have a right to live...

LGBTQ+ Parent School Survey

The LGBTQ+You School Survey is an Australian-wide project at Macquarie University. This study is looking at what Australian schools are like for Students, Staff and Parents who identify as LGBTQ+. The survey...

Parent peer support program

PARENT PEER SUPPORT PROGRAM What is it? The Rainbow Families Parent Peer Support Program aims to provide parents with community connection and support from a peer volunteer who has similar experiences. We...

Free Activity Packs

We are super excited to announce that we have another 400 free activity packs to send out to families to help keep your little ones occupied. We know that the COVID situation...

Rainbow Families Youth Advisory Council News

Over the past couple of months our Youth Advisory Council (YAC) have been working hard developing a new resource for young people by young people in our community. The 2021 YAC are...

Join our team

We have an opportunity to join our small team in a new Development Officer role. The aim of this role is to continue to build Rainbow Families as a sustainable and impactful...

Colouring In With Joyce Maynge

The fabulous Joyce Maynge has created a beautiful colouring book to help pass the time this school holidays. The colouring in book features Joyce doing all of her favourite post lock down...

Volunteer Profile Steve

You may have noticed that we have a new website. Putting together a new website is no small task and for a community organisation like Rainbow Families the budget is tight -...

Including diverse families on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day

We are excited about a new resource supporting LGBTQ+ families at schools on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. We know Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are important days to celebrate, but they...

My Census 2021

My Census 2021 - by Justine Field The slogan for the 2021 Census is “Every stat tells a story”. The ABS website tells us that the Census is “the most comprehensive snapshot...

Rainbow Families Sports Carnivals

We are super excited to announce we will be bringing a series of sports carnivals to families across NSW. Thanks to The Heart Foundation's Active Australia Innovation Challenge we will host mini...

Youth Advisory Council Update

Our Youth Advisory Council (YAC) has had an exciting start to the year thanks to our friends at Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre. The YAC met monthly and the wonderful Stephen Lunny ran...

Our diverse families

Earlier in the year we had a photo shoot with some wonderful families from our community. It was a relaxed fun filled afternoon, with the aim of capturing real life families doing...

#StrongSafeFabulous Event

On May 2nd Rainbow Families from across Sydney came together for our first face to face event in over a year. The day was all about families being #StrongSafeFabulous, with lots of opportunities...

Pen Pal Program

Our pen pal program with Rainbow Families USA has started with a bang. There are 20 Aussies and 20 Americans that are busily writing to each other, sharing what life is like on the...

Fundraise On Facebook For Rainbow Families

Is your birthday coming up? You can now support Rainbow Families by fundraising on Facebook for us. There are a range of different ways you can support our work just using your...

Volunteer Profile Bridget

Bridget is a longstanding volunteer who has done so much for our community. Bridget joined the Rainbow Families Committee in 2018 and started looking for projects they could get involved with and...

Peer Support Program Update

Our Peer Support Program is getting closer to launching. This week we have employed Monique Ribeiro to set up and run the program over the next 6 months. In the coming months will run...

Australia's first LGBTQ+ lactation class

On Saturday 17 July, Rainbow Families and the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) ran the first LGBTQIA+ BEL (Breast/chestfeeding Education Live) online. This lactation education class was run with great success and was...

Mardi Gras 2021

Thank you to everyone who helped make the Mardi Gras parade a wonderful celebration for our community in March.

Support us through Give With Bing

We’re excited to announce an easy way to support Rainbow Families without opening your wallet - Give with Bing! Join Microsoft Rewards, earn points for your Microsoft Bing searches, and your points will...

Volunteer Profile Will

You may have noticed that our Instagram feed is looking very professional lately. That is thanks to the wonderful Will. Will joined our marketing committee in September and put his hand up to manage our Instagram...

Update On The Latham Bill

It’s been a busy couple of months for our equality team. Amy McGowan, Justine Field and Connor Boesel have been working hard to ensure a harmful Bill is not introduced into NSW Parliament. Mark Latham’s Education Legislation...

#StrongSafeFabulous

Celebrate #StrongSafeFabulous Relationships this Mardi Gras! We invite you to celebrate #StrongSafeFabulous relationships in a new social media campaign to launch on the 1st of March. Developed by Prosper (Project Australia) and...

Pen Pal Club

We have started a pen-pal club with Rainbow Families USA! Children can learn about another culture, share their own stories about their family and culture in Australia, have an opportunity to make...

Volunteer Profile Bern and Di

Meet the wonderful team behind our Mardi Gras Float! Anyone who has marched with us in the past will know how much work goes into organising our Mardi Gras float. Bern and...

We asked what matters – here’s how you responded to the 2021 Rainbow Families Survey

We asked what matters – here’s how you responded to the 2021 Rainbow Families Survey Late last year as part of their company-wide Impact Day, Deloitte carried out some research with Rainbow...

Volunteers wanted for Lactation project

Are you interested in supporting Rainbow Families in the current lactation and human milk feeding project that is in partnership with the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA)?

Marketing volunteers

We are looking for some skilled volunteers to join our marketing committee. The committee meets monthly and work across most of the exciting projects that Rainbow Families delivers to the community. Roles...

Help Stop The Education Legislation Amendment (Parental Rights) Bill 2020

Mark Latham has introduced another piece of legislation that directly attacks LGBTQ+ people. The Education Legislation Amendment (Parental Rights) Bill 2020 harms trans and gender diverse students by denying their existence and preventing teachers and counsellors...

New Parents Group

We are excited that our new parents group will be running again this year. Facilitated by Jo Fletcher from Alexandria Park Community Centre, the group is a safe, inclusive, supported group for...

Rainbow Families looking for rainbow families

Everywhere we look this time of year, advertisers are talking about families. But too often, those photos do not show diverse families. This can be especially difficult for those who live in...

Annual Report 2020

2020 was a huge year for everyone - including Rainbow Families Inc. The world we live in is changing rapidly, and there are many challenges we continue to face. However, one thing is...

Neurodiverse Families Group

A number of studies have shown that autistic people are significantly more likely than the general population to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender diverse or queer. Therefore the intersection with Autism shapes...

Camp was excellent

As the sun was fading over the Narrabeen Lake, some 40 children and their families arrived at Narrabeen Sport and Rec Camp Site for our Resilience Camp. The camp program was designed...

We want all families to be equal

Our families experience many forms of discrimination, and we don’t think that is OK. One of the ways Rainbow Families supports LGBTQ+ parents is to work to remove this discrimination for our...

Trans And Gender Diverse Resources

At Rainbow Families we acknowledge families are created in various ways. We also acknowledge that not all parents identify as “mum” or “dad”, and some parents may be exploring their gender identity,...

Playgroup is back

Everyone has been asking when Playgroup will start again. Finally we have a date for playgroup to return in a COVID safe way. We have been in regular contact with the City...

5 ways to encourage positive mental health for your kids after separation

While separation or divorce can be a difficult period of change for all family members, children often have a particularly tough time adjusting. It’s natural to worry about how your new family...

Tallay - Volunteer Profile

Tallay is a proud Gayby who has 2 mothers. She was raised in Canberra where she was acutely aware that her family was different. This led her to find an accepting community...

Helping kids to stay safe

A new initiative tailored for children living in Rainbow Families is keeping young people safe. Developed by Prosper (Project Australia) and Rainbow Families, the newly launched program helps young people to understand...

All children deserve equal rights

Rainbow Families is launching a new advocacy campaign - for law reform in relation to surrogacy laws and the status of parents whose children are born overseas. For children born through international...

One Nation NSW Religion Bill - What You Can Do

One Nation has introduced a bill in the NSW Parliament which contains a number of alarming provisions which could have a range of really negative impacts for our families. In NSW, our...

Do you want to join our Youth Advisory Council?

We are looking for 16 young people to join us as we start an exciting new project for our Youth Advisory Council (YAC). In partnership with Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre we are...

Love Makes A Family - Podcast

We are launching our podcast all about LGBTQ+ families - Telling the stories of diverse families in Australia. It is an Australian focused podcast providing the community with an audible medium to...

Separation Guide

Separation can be an isolating experience if you are an LGBTQ+ parent. Where do you look for guidance if the models for post-separation parenting that you see around you for just don’t...

Family Violence Prevention - Community Consultation

Rainbow Families and Prosper (Project Australia) have received funding via the Australian Government’s Community-led Projects to Prevent Violence Against Women and their Children grant round, to work within the extended community of...

The Story Of Auntie Uncle

Hello! I’m Ellie Royce, children’s author. I've just celebrated the release of my new picture book Auntie Uncle: Drag Queen Hero written by me, illustrated by Hannah Chambers and published by Pow!Kids...

Drag Story Time At The Aquarium

Did you know there are Gay Dad penguins at the Sydney Aquarium? Last year penguins Magic and Sphen had a baby! They are the very first Gay Dads at the aquarium. Their...

HUGO The boy with the curious mark

HUGO The boy with the curious mark. Illustrations by Award winning Illustrator Manuela Adreani Written by debut author Yohann Devezy Hugo the boy with the curious mark, is an important book....

A message from Vanessa and Scott

What the proposed changes to the constitution mean for Rainbow Families and why we need your support A few days ago, Rainbow Families paid financial members received a notification from our Public...

Advocacy Update

Recently, the Rainbow Families Advocacy team had a meeting with the Office of the Prime Minister in relation to our Love (Still) Makes a Family report. This was an exciting development for...

Helping Hand Activity

This weeks home schooling activity is designed to get your children thinking about five adults they can call on for help if they need.

Child Protection Activities

Many of us are stuck at home at the moment and looking for activities to entertain our kids. Rainbow Families is excited to have a number of activities over the coming weeks...

Free audio book version of: “The Curse of Grandma Maple”

Guest Blog Post from Jac Tomlins How’s that social isolation with the kids going? Jigsaw puzzles? Monopoly? Baking? Or, like me, have you given up the battle of the screens and embraced...

Gayby Baby Home Schooling Kit

Many of us are home schooling our kids for the first time and looking for interesting ways to educate and entertain them. Our friends at Gayby Baby have made it simple for...

Mardi Gras Wrap Up

Thank you to everyone that helped make Mardi Gras a wonderful celebration for our community. We had our first Drag Story Time at the Sydney Aquarium and it was fabulous. Over 200...

Religious discrimination bills update

Towards the end of last year, the Government released a second draft of the religious discrimination bills. For our families, these Bills are even worse than the first drafts. While Rainbow Families...

How to celebrate Mardi Gras at Early Learning Centres

It’s officially Mardi Gras season, and while some members of our community are working hard at the gym, for parents it’s a time to think about how we can talk to our...

Religious Discrimination Submission

We have been working with Rainbow Families Queensland and Rainbow Families Victoria on a joint submission into the Religious Discrimination Bill. We do not support the Bills in their current form The 2nd exposure draft has not...

Australia's Family Law System

Rainbow Families has made a submission to the Federal Parliament's Joint Select Committee on Australia's Family Law System. In preparing our response, we surveyed members of our community about their experiences and views on...

Travelling with your baby

Our guest blogger Rachael Matthews from Lotus Point talks about her tips for travelling with your baby over the holidays. Here are some travel tips I have come across when doing some research...

Family Law System Submission

Rainbow Families has been invited to contribute to the Federal Parliament's Joint Select Committee on Australia's Family Law System. You might recall that there was a comprehensive Australian Law Reform Commission review...

The triangle of balanced parenting

Guest blogger Rachel Matthews from Lotus Point talks about how we as parents can achieve balance in our lives DAILY SELF-CARE. It is not selfish but necessary for you to be able...

LGBTIQA+ inclusive kids books

Sharing a book together with your loved ones is a special time, a great way to bond and create beautiful memories. Diverse books reflecting our community are becoming more common for a...

What’s Happening with the Laws around Religious Freedom?

At the end of August, the Morrison Government released draft legislation that would provide new privileges to people of faith, and override existing protections from discrimination for LGBTIQ+ people and our families....

The drag queen who reads stories to kids

One of our favourite Drag Queens, and regular Drag Story Time host Hannah Conda talked to Junkee about why Drag Story Time is so important to her.

Finding Identity On Their Terms

The fabulous Dr. Red Ruby Scarlet has been at it again. Talking all things queer in Early Childhood Education. Check out her latest article published in Every Child Magazine last month. Download...

50+ LGBTIQ organisations and Allies support affirming Religious Discrimination Bill

More than 50 LGBTIQ+ and ally organisations including Rainbow Families have released a joint statement in support of an affirming Religious Discrimination Act. Anna Brown, CEO of Equality Australia, has called on...

Postnatal Depression Video

Rainbow Families is excited to share an amazing video created by our community for our community about postnatal depression in our community. This project has been ongoing for a number of years...

Love (still) Makes A Family Report

Rainbow Families has launched a report into discrimination faced by LGBTIQ+ parented families when access Australian Government Services. This report is a follow-up to the 2017 Rainbow Families NSW report Love makes...

Trans and Gender Diverse Parents Guide

The Rainbow Families Trans and Gender Diverse Parents Guide details the personal stories of trans and gender diverse (TGD) parents, their partners and children. Each story is unique – reflecting a very...

Every child deserves a legal parent

Rainbow Families is leading the charge with Dowson Turco Lawyers, the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby and Surrogacy Australia to campaign for law reform in relation to surrogacy laws and the...

Transgender Day of Visibility

Each year March 31st acknowledges the trans community worldwide with “Transgender Day of Visibility”. This day celebrates the trans community and raises awareness of discrimination that is still faced by trans folks...

Life after death: social media in the afterlife

Dowson Turco Lawyers’ Nicholas Stewart sets out the rules for social media in the afterlife My partner came to me upset the other night when he saw a Brazilian “friend’s” Instagram post...

Making Rainbow Families Seminar Wrap Up

Rainbow Families hosted the third annual Making Rainbow Families Seminar on June 16th. Over 50 LGBTIQ perspective parents attending to hear about the different pathways to becoming a parent. The day started...

Early Years Support Guide

Rainbow Families Early Years Support Guide is the result of collaboration between Rainbow Families and writer, Jacqui Tomlins. The Guide has been developed in response to ongoing requests for information from parents...

School Support Guide

Rainbow Families School Support Guide is the result of collaboration between Rainbow Families and writer, Jacqui Tomlins. The Guide has been developed in response to ongoing requests for information from parents and...