With the motto Power up Families, this year’s International Family Equality Day (IFED) calls on all families to embrace their uniqueness and to stand up to claim equality and justice.
Since 2012, the first Sunday of May has marked the annual celebration of IFED – a unique LGBTQ+ awareness day focusing on the importance of equality and family diversity. This year is no exception: Under the motto Power up Families, IFED 2023 encourages everyone to support, accept, value and take care of each other. By doing so, we strengthen individuals, families, and entire communities.
This year’s IFED celebration emphasises the fact that families can only thrive when their members intentionally commit and contribute to the wellbeing of the family.
Maria von Känel (Switzerland), IFED-founder, said: “By sharing our time, goals, challenges and memories and through open and honest communication, we power up our families.
“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.”
This year, IFED wants to encourage everyone – not just LGBTQ+ individuals – to work towards a more just and equitable world that supports diverse families. “By listening to the voices, addressing challenges and ensuring power sharing, we power up families,” says IFED co-president Matcha Phorn-In (Thailand).
“We can all recognise that family is the foundation of society, and that in order to remain safe, we must be, inclusive and accepting. This is only realisable when we nurture and foster a culture of human rights that are affirming in practice and by the laws and policies that govern us.
“Therefore, marriage equality and family equality that I, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and our allies advocate for are great and powerful tools on the path to ensuring protections for parents and youth.”
Celebrating IFED is not only meant to empower and strengthen rainbow families; its messages of inclusion and equality aim at getting everyone involved, especially law and decisionmakers as well as leading institutions both in the public and private sector.
“In order to thrive, all types of families, including Rainbow Families need legal recognition and economic security”, says IFED co-president Benny Odongo (Kenya). “We therefore demand equal support of every individual family and strive for a society where diversity is not seen as a threat, but as a sign of justice, strength, and beauty. We know that this is the world where everybody can fully develop their individual and true potential.”