Rainbow families are thriving at home but still face discrimination in the broader community, according to a new Rainbow Families Australia report.
Thriving Families, Unequal Burdens, a new report by Rainbow Families Australia, surveyed 1,295 LGBTQ+ households from November 2025 to March 2026.
Rainbow Families Australia Executive Officer and co-founder Ashley Scott said the report was the first of its kind to look at LGBTQ+ households and find out who they are, where they live and what they experience.
“Families opened up about their joys, their exhaustion, the small indignities and the outright discrimination, and the fierce love that holds their families together,” he said.
“It’s clear from this report that the rainbow families community is thriving: 87% of our households told us they are happy, and almost 93% told us their children are happy too.”
Beyond those numbers, the report found 89% of households reported little or no family conflict, compared with 71% of families in Australian Institute of Family Studies comparison data.
Some 88% of LGBTQ+ households share meals regularly, compared with 77% of Australian families generally, and 80% have regular in-person contact with extended family, compared to 51%.
“Rainbow families build friendship networks far deeper than the national average,” Scott said.
“My children say they were raised with more insight into the world than their friends, so they feel better prepared with information they need about sexuality, gender, relationships and consent,” one participant said.
“We focus on spending quality time together and creating opportunities for new/fulfilling experiences,” another participant said.
However, Scott said it was not all smooth sailing, and the report also highlighted the discrimination faced by rainbow families.
One in six families said their children had been bullied because of their parents’ gender or sexuality, and one in five said their children had been left out, treated unfairly or bullied at school.
“While our child may not experience this directly, we are conscious that children in rainbow families can be targeted as an extension of their parents. Ensuring schools are inclusive, proactive, and supportive is important to us,” one survey participant said.
Trans and gender diverse families were hit hardest, with nearly half (49.4%) experiencing exclusion, bullying or discrimination, compared with 22.6% of gay male couple families.
Families outside the cities also bore the brunt, with 56% of rural and remote families experiencing discrimination, compared with 34% of urban families.
“Families with a trans or gender-diverse parent, sole parent families, and families at the intersection of queerness and disability or neurodivergence reported the most heart-wrenching experiences,” Scott said.
“This is a reminder to all of us that ‘rainbow families’ is not one identity, but an intersection of our many identities, and that equality work has to reach every part of our community, not just the parts that are easiest to talk about.”
The report also acknowledged the stress rainbow families face navigating laws, services and institutions that weren’t designed for them.
Some 74% said they often feel exhausted from trying to meet their children’s needs, compared to 47% of Australian families.
Meanwhile, 72% of rainbow families said parenting was harder than they expected, compared to 51% of families generally.
The report made a number of recommendations to better support rainbow families, including expanded research, surrogacy law reform and changes to the Sex Discrimination Act.
It also called on federal and state governments to remove the carve-outs that allow religious schools and organisations to discriminate against rainbow families and LGBTQ+ employees.
Wentworth MP Allegra Spender recently introduced the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work Amendment (Equality in Treatment in Religious Schools) Bill 2026 to close that carve-out.
The Labor government initially committed to scrapping the exemption, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese later shelved the legislation, citing a lack of support.
“I hope you read what follows not as a list of statistics, but as a picture of our community, determined to raise our children well, in the face of a world that does not always make that easy,” Scott said.
The full report is available on the Rainbow Families Australia website.
