PRESS RELEASE
Family Portraits
Rome 4 November 2024
The “Family Portraits” campaign starts today, online and in the streets of Rome, created by an informal network of civil society associations. The campaign gives the term “family” its broadest meaning, referring to the concrete reality that people experience: families are in fact many, different, fluid and elective. Through social networks, posters and billboard trucks we want to represent the plural relationships present in our society.
According to Istat (provisional data 2023) there are approximately 26 million and 200 thousand families, with a notable variety in the composition clearly revealed by the data. Of the nuclear families, couples with children make up 50.3 percent and, although they are still the prevalent typology today, their incidence has reduced by almost 10 percentage points over the last twenty years. The number of childless couples has increased, now representing just under a third of the total households (32.4 percent) and the weight of single-parent households has grown, representing 17.3 percent of the total. Furthermore, over the last twenty years, the share of single-person families has increased and the percentage of large ones has decreased.
We therefore want to underline the importance of the recognition of civil and social rights for all people, broadening the definition of family, since society is constantly changing and there is not one single ideal of family, but as many as there are our ways of existing in the world in different forms of relationships, coexistence, mutual support, friendship and solidarity.
We have chosen to show this plurality, which also contains the most widespread model, which a fundamentalist and reactionary vision would like to impose as unique by calling it “traditional”. But in reality, what all possible family and life forms have in common is the element of choice that each person makes for himself.
Join us, use the hashtag #familyportraits on social networks and spread the campaign!
Families are all different. Rights must all be equal.
The associations promoting the Campaign are: Aidos, Certi Diritti, CGIL, Mario Mieli Homosexual Culture Club, Civiltà Laica, Famiglie Arcobaleno, Laiga, Period Think Tank, Più di 194 voci, Pro-choice Italian contraception and abortion network, Lenford Network, Rete Umbra 2020, If not now when Turin, Union of atheists and rationalist agnostics – Uaar.
This campaign is co-financed by the European Union. Its content, however, reflects exclusively the opinions of the authors, the sole responsible persons, and does not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. The European Union cannot be held responsible in any way for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.