05.11.

Program 5.11.2019 (only in English available)

Dordićeva 8a/II, Zagreb

4:00 PM 

Biographical Workshop by Rosalia Kopeinig | workshop

This workshop is an invitation for people who are interested in reflecting their own biographical stories around the theme. Telling the own story is sometimes also telling an alternative his/her*story contrary to the common history of a generation of a city.

All this implies a discussion of memories, which reveal personal experiences and attitudes thus granting access to social realities on a subjective and socio-historical level. 

Rosalia Kopeinig is a psychologist, she is a team member of Mapping the Unseen

 

6:00 PM

Rainbow Families: Enacting LGBTIQ parenthood | talk

Do you want to start your (rainbow) family, but you don’t know where and how to begin? What are the options and possible scenarios for potential LGBTIQ* parents in today’s Croatia? Come to the Enacting LGBTIQ Parenthood workshop and discussion, either as a couple or a single person. Even though the discussion is primarily focused on women, there will also be some points of interest for future dads, such as co-parenting.

Co-parenting is an option for many LGBTIQ* individuals or couples who wish to become parents. It entails a joint raising of the child and sharing parental and financial responsibilities. There are various options for parent combinations: a lesbian couple and a gay couple, a lesbian couple and a single man, a single man and a single woman, etc.

What are the important things to discuss and arrange before entering a co-parenting relationship? Would it suit you to be an actively participating parent 50% of the time or would you like to be more involved, or less involved? To what end and how can the rights of a non-biological parent be regulated? Does co-parenting influence the dynamics of a lesbian or a gay relationship? What are the benefits and what are the challenges of co-parenting?

We will attempt to answer those and other questions at our workshop. There will be parents sharing their life experience. Feel free to join us even if parenthood is not a topic you are actively contemplating at the moment. Share your thoughts because it might be helpful to others!

Modelled after other similar organizations, Rainbow Families work with LGBTIQ* couples and individuals who have children, wish to have children or simply want to be informed on the challenges and benefits of family planning.

2011 marked the first time the families met up as a support group organized by Zagreb Pride, under the guiding hand of psychologists IskraPejić and Matea Popov. After two cycles of the support group, the attendees continued to meet up and socialize as an informal civil initiative – they started a forum and a web-page, and in 2017 they founded the organization that published a picture book called My Rainbow Family in 2018, the first Croatian picture book to feature same-sex parents. In 2019, they organized the first international conference about rainbow families in Croatia. Rainbow Families continue to organize activities and meetings on a regular basis.

Given the fact that we are talking about atypical families, conversation with others that share similar circumstances may be very beneficial and encouraging. Through the meetings of Rainbow Families, LGBTIQ* parents and those who are planning parenthood are given a chance to exchange experiences and their know-how, to get to know other parents and to socialize with them.

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