About Us

You should be wondering who we are...

We are mothers, fathers and relatives whose children are LGBTI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and gender diverse) persons. There are also friends, acquaintances and relatives who are with us.

When our children first came out, weren’t all we shocked? With very few exceptions, we knew what LGBTI+ meant from television and newspapers and we did not hear good things, unsurprisingly. They were depicted as abnormal, strange, odd, even harmful persons. We might use the same bad names to humiliate, despise, and degrade others. Then we had to suddenly face with the reality: “Mom, I’m gay”; “Please don’t get angry but I’m not your son, I’m your daughter.”

Most of us rushed into the psychologists when found ourselves as knocked off balance… We tried to get an answer “how is this going to pass, is there a cure…” Some of them misled us by some false guidance that would make our child and us unhappy. Some of them guided us in the right way, that is, “it is so natural what is going on with your children, you need to understand, embrace and accept them”.

Here, we, as a group of parents, went through these situations and established GALADER-Ankara Rainbow Families Association. We have about 10 years of history, but we completed the establishment procedure in October 2019. We have an office that we share with two other NGOs where always the hot beverages are available. You are always welcomed at our office for solidarity, to discuss and to make the lives of our children and ourselves better.
Still, once a month we come together by being accompanied by experts from Turkish Psychiatric Association, we discuss what we have learned until that day, and we meet new families to get together and get stronger.

In order to make the lives of our children and ourselves better, we cooperate with various institutions and organizations, especially municipalities, and we explain the employees about ourselves and what LGBTI+ means. We are trying to be more visible and recognized publicly through various events we organize and we participate in. We also cooperate closely with the associations where our children are organized. We are also in contact with LGBTI+ families associations and organizations in other countries like LGBTI Equal Rights Association for Western Balkans and Turkey (ERA) in which we are member of.

While we struggle to eliminate the discrimination, marginalization and the negative consequences brought by these while our children are struggling for their self-existence, we do not give up to combat all kinds of discrimination and marginalization. We know that an unjust situation will pave the way for the others and feed the existing ones.

Our door is wide open to welcome anyone who wants to join us by saying “Another family is possible”. Lets keep in mind that the better and stronger organizations we have, the easier our children’s struggle for a free and proud life will be.