Download the complete kit here.
Introduction
OUTspoken Families came out of my experience of raising three children in a rainbow family for the past twelve years. There are many things that my family share with other families: we all have to adjust to the changes children bring to our lives; we all want our kids to grow up secure, healthy and happy; we all worry and hope and fear. And we all have to deal with nits and homework and fights over screen time.
But there are some things that are unique to rainbow families; small day-to-day challenges and bigger questions and concerns. OUTspoken Families aims to address those differences. Over a period of twelve months I spoke with a broad range of parents on all sorts of subjects. Their ideas, suggestions and advice – their collective wisdom – form the basis of this resource.
So much of what I’ve learnt about parenting my kids has come from conversations with other same-sex parents; there are no magazines or websites or books about raising a rainbow family. OUTspoken Families is like having all those conversations gathered together in one place.
OUTspoken Families provides a snapshot of how we, as a community, are faring in this particular time and place. To have that on record is important for our community and important for the world. We need honest and accurate stories of our experience to reflect the past and help us step confidently into the future.
I also hope this resource will be of value to service providers who work with rainbow families. I hope it will provide them with insight and understanding and answer some of the questions they are too nervous or embarrassed to ask. Most of all, I hope it will give them the confidence to offer their LGBTI clients a respectful and informed service.
Many people in the public sphere talk about our families and make statements that come from a place of ignorance. It’s important that we continue to challenge those statements and the people who make them. Our collective voice needs to be louder than the collective voice of those who rail against us. OUTspoken Families is filled with courageous voices that speak loudly and proudly and do exactly that.
The kit can be downloaded as individual PDFs using the links below.
If you are a service provider and are interested in organising training for your workplace, please get in touch with me here.
Topics
Telling the kids
Talking about how your family was created
Non-biological parents
Pregnancy and antenatal classes
Birth midwives and nurses
Maternal and child health nurses and new parents groups
Starting kinder or day care
Rainbow families and primary school
Mothers Day and Fathers Day
Teasing, name-calling, and bullying
Older kids and adolescents
Rainbow families in rural and regional areas
Educating the community
Rainbow families: The challenges
Rainbow families: The rewards
Research
Child health and wellbeing in same-sex parent families
Case studies
Corin: 12 years of wisdom
