LGBT “Rainbow Families” seek recognition with tricity festival

The VIth Festival of Rainbow Families took place in Poland’s Tricity last weekend. Studies show that children raised by same-sex couples don’t differ from the children raised in families created by women and men. The couples argue children from same-sex couples have more contact with their parents and cope with emotions better.

50 thousand Polish children are brought up in so-called rainbow families – families made up of same-sex couples. In Poland, unlike in Western countries, the civil partnerships and homosexual marriages have not been legalised because Poles know little about them and the couples themselves often do not reveal their relationships.

This is the 6th edition of the Festival of Rainbow Families, but for the first time actual rainbow families have appeared – says Anna Strzałkowska from the Association of LGBT people, Tolerado. – The previous editions were organised in Warsaw and were restricted only to one day of debates and movie projections. No rainbow families came. Now we decided to organise a 3-day event, with a picnic for the families from the whole Poland.

Several dozens of gays and lesbians came to the festival with their children to prove their existence, to show that their life does not differ from the life of families, where the parents are of different sexes.

According to contemporary psychology, family is a basic social unit, which is defined based on emotional bonds, even if there is no blood connection – says Marta Abramowicz from the Tolerado Association. – 25% of children in Poland are raised by one parent, we also have many “patchwork families”, in which a child has 1 mum and 2 dads: biological one and mother’s partner. The world changes, various models of families appear. The aim of this festival is to show that as homosexual and transgender people we are still a family, we have grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, aunts, that the relations between us are the same as there are in a traditional family.

We should not forbid the people who love each other to marry

The festival started on Friday with a lecture titled “Families of choice”, which was given by a PAN (Polish Academy of Sciences )professor, Joanna Mizielińska and Agata Stasińska, and a discussion with the participation of dr Katarzyna Bojarska and Marta Abramowicz. On Saturday there were 3 developmental workshops for the Rainbow families, LGBT teenangers and their parents. Later, a screening of an Austrailian movie “Gaybe baby” (word play on the title “Maybe Baby”) took place.

This debate never should have taken place because we should never forbid the same-sex people, who love one another, to marry – says 11-year-old Matt after the meeting.

Parents talk more with their children in rainbow families

After the movie, a debate was held, in which the results from different studies on rainbow families in Poland and other countries were presented. All the studies conducted during the last 40 years have shown that the arguments of same-sex marriages’ opponents are not true – says Ewa Slezkin – the author of a book about homosexual families in Poland. – These opponents state that the childen raised by the same-sex parents will have troubles in identifying their sexual identity and in general emotional and psychological development. However, nothing similar happens. These children do not differ from the children from tradiotional families. They are even more emotionally developed. They have better relations with their parents, because homosexual parents pay more attention to them, they talk with each other more often, and they share their home duties differently.

The festival ended on Sunday with a picnic in Club Atelier, near Sopot beach. A video, prepared under the project “Rainbow families full of strength and glow” was presented.



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