Generation Alpha Kids are talking about their lives growing up in a rainbow family at the World Pride 2021 held in Copenhagen
“The most annoying thing is when people ask you about traditional roles in your family”, said a Spanish boy at a panel discussion at the World Pride 2021 in Copenhagen. „Both, is my answer. Both are cleaning or cooking, sometimes even together.“ When children and teenagers born in rainbow families are asked about their lives, they can just talk about their everyday experiences. It´s just normal for them that they have a family composition that is different. But is it normal for the person who inquires the habits of cleaning and cooking in a family? Is it just curiosity or even ignorance?
We do not know. And if you don´t belong to a rainbow family, you may have asked such questions, too. But what we know is how the affected members of the rainbow families are thinking about these questions. They do not feel well when being asked this. They can even feel offended. “I don´t want to be others people’s Google“. That´s the statement of a girl raised in a rainbow family with two mothers. She continues: „The most important thing is I had two moms as a role model.”
The fact that people ask these questions shows us that being a member of a rainbow family isn´t that normal as we thought it might be. Some people still have no idea of what daily life in rainbow family is.
Is it just curiosity or even ignorance?
We do not know. Maybe it´s both. And maybe it´s depending on the questioner. At the World Pride this year I listened to the experiences of Generation Alpha children who have been confronted their whole lives with such questions. For me it´s just logical that they are sometimes annoyed by the questioners. The fact that such questions still exist shows that we haven´t already reached this stage of liberality that we pretend to have established in our society. And this fact also shows that the Generation Alpha – children born since 2010 until 2025 – still have to deal with such issues even if we live in a society that is one of the most liberal in human history. Spain was one of the first countries in Europe to allow same sex marriages. In countries such as Spain, Germany, Sweden or the Netherlands sex and gender is a fewer overriding criterion. Just imagine how the situation is for Generation Alpha in countries where liberalism hasn´t gone so far.
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy trying to maximize the freedom of the individual and minimize the state’s opportunity to control the individual. Thus, liberalism also means that people are free to ask whatever they want to ask. And this means that members of rainbow families will have to deal with such questions even in the future. And even if these questions seem to be annoying them. A boy from a rainbow family at the World Pride Copenhagen 2021 resumed: “We have the responsibility to tell the people that our world is normal too”.
But the greater responsibility should be given to people interested in how a rainbow family works. Just rethink yourself and be honest: Am I really interested in their lives or am I questioning something that is related to them? If you aren´t a member of a rainbow family, that is your responsibility. Liberalism is about freedom, but freedom is also limited when the lives of others are affected. We therefore should just meet somewhere in between. All Generations are responsible for each other.
