Rainbow families go hi-tech
LGBTI families will soon have another way of connecting with others with the help of just their smart phones and a new app, designed specifically for ‘rainbow’ families.
The ‘Rainbow Family Finder’ app is the creation of Alicia Cavanagh and Shanel Hennessy, a couple who are the proud mothers of an eight-year-old girl who felt that their daughter had reached an age where she needed to experience other LGBTI families.
“My partner and I created this app because based on personal experience we found it difficult to connect with other LGBT families in our nearby area,” Cavanagh told the Star Observer.
“[Our daughter] has reached an age where we feel that for her self development and understanding of her family situation, she needs to interact and be exposed to other children with same sex parents.”
The app works in a similar fashion to other GPS-based smart phone apps, where users can create profiles and search for other families in their local area.
Rainbow Family Finder will cater for anyone in the LGBTI community who have children or are planning to start a family. The creators have designed the app for single parents to use as well.
“Single lesbian mums and gay dads are welcome and will find this app extremely useful. Particularly circumstances where parents have suffered from a relationship breakdown and they choose to relocate to a new area. It is a daunting thought to have to start again and worry about finding new friends.”
The creators started marketing the app six weeks ago and have already been flooded with responses and requests from Australia and around the world.
As a result, the app will be available on Apple and Android phones. The app was very well received at last week’s International Lesbian Day Expo in Brisbane with several mothers sharing similar stories of isolation with the creators.
Rainbow Family Finder has been enthusiastically welcomed by LGBTI family organisations around Australia and has attracted interest from more than 550 potential users from 16 countries. The app will be released on the market within just over a week.
INFO: rainbowfamilyfinder.com
