International Family Equality Today Celebrates LGBTQIA+ Families

International Family Equality Day (IFED) celebrates the diversity of LGBTQ+ families around the world, and takes place every year on the first Sunday in May. The theme for IFED 2020 is Family Diversity in Education and will take place on May 3.

IFED was launched in 2010 as a sign of solidarity and strength and to promote equality for all families. During this time, global organizations had started to recognize the disparity between the treatment of LGBTQIA+ families, non-traditional family structures, and heteronormative families and began to seek protections which would ensure equality for all regardless of family type. In 2012, many leaders came together for a symposium in Florida to discuss how these protections would go into effect especially in terms of research and support for families who are being discriminated against.

In the past decade, IFED – which has become a global movement – has sought to create balance not just in the protections for LGBTQIA+ families, but also in representation. They have sought for many things including:

• Full representations of diverse families in the schools, textbooks, education materials, language and narratives
• Recognition of Diversity in schools, education systems, and informal education
• Inclusion of all families by adapting regulations, forms, procedures, and communications

Further Reading:

• IFED – Official
• Family-friendly policies and other good workplace practices in the context of COVID-19: Key steps employers can take – UNICEF