About

Rainbows in Schools is a volunteer run, nonprofit, unincorporated association of parents and teachers who want to see greater support and inclusion of LGBTQI students and families in Australian school communities.  It was started by LGBTQI and ally parents, who were looking for ways to improve the way their children's schools were responding to the increased homophobia and transphobia that resulted from the marriage equality postal survey in 2017.  We have undertaken a number of projects around building the capacity of parents to advocate for greater affirmation of family, sexual, gender and bodily diversity in primary schools, and we are continually applying for grants to deliver further projects.    

August 2017 - Rainbow Collaboration - Darebin & Surrounds was started by two of our members.  This is an online platform set up so that parents whose children attended different schools in the area could share information, ideas and resources about advocating for schools to provide more support to LGBTQI kids and families in the face of the postal survey.  Rainbow Collaboration collected information about the actions various schools were taking, about the various advocacy strategies that parents were using, and about written and video resources that parents had found useful.  This information was then shared online.  Initially intended to be for residents of Darebin, Victoria, only, the interest in the group grew quickly so that we soon had members from all over Victoria, as well as some from NSW.      

September 2017 - Darebin Family Fun Day was organized by six of our members.  Organized in only three and a half weeks, the event drew a crowd of over 2000 people.  This was a free event, the purpose of which was to celebrate rainbow families, at a time when the community was under great stress as a result of the marriage equality public debate.  Aunty Di Kerr (Wurundjeri Elder), Kim Le Cerf (Darebin Mayor), Lidia Thorpe (State Member for Northcote), Clare Burns (candidate for State Member for Northcote) and David Feeney (Senator) gave speeches about the importance of inclusivity and diversity.  Proud 2 Play ran football skills workshops, Westside Circus ran circus skills workshops and roaming musicians and performers entertained the crowd.  Rainbow Families Victoria, Queerspace and other community services attended to provide information about supports available to people struggling with the public debate.  Hares & Hyenas bookstore also attended with a large array of books affirming family, gender, sexuality and bodily diversity, both for adults and for children.   

January 2nd, 2018 - the Rainbows in Schools Survey was launched online, reaching 346 parents and teachers in three weeks.  This survey asked parents, teachers and students about what LGBTQI inclusive actions their school was doing, and about what they saw as barriers to this, and how these barriers might be managed. 

January 13th, 2018 - Rainbows in Schools presented at the Better Together conference, reporting the preliminary results of the Rainbows in Schools Survey as part of a wider discussion about LGBTQI inclusion in schools.  Rainbows in Schools Discussion Group was then set up after the conference, as a place to continue these discussions.  

In February 2018, the Rainbows in Schools website was launched.   This website contains over 20 pages of information, including more detailed results of the survey, and information that was collected by the Rainbow Collaboration Facebook group.  As requested by the survey respondents, the website also contains information about schools that were good examples of LGBTQI inclusion.   

April 2018 - Rainbows in Schools officially became a not for profit unincorporated association, with membership, committee and office bearers, in order to expand the number and types of grants we are eligible to apply for.  

Committee:

Nicole Lord (Co-chair), Megan Grigg (Co-chair and Treasurer), Suzette Mitchell (Secretary), Caitlin Coleman (committee), Emma Sampson (committee), Judy Poll (committee), Jaye Bosman (committee).