Rainbow Families 2

Jun 2023

In our second Rainbow Families campaign, we explore what home means to LGBTQ+ people in Singapore. Through intimate video interviews and our “Rainbow Families: Dear Home” exhibition, we navigate the challenges that queer people face with parental acceptance at home.

Highlights

>90

rainbow families

>350

photo participants

$4.6k

raised for LGBTQ+ groups

700

exhibition visitors


Campaign highlights

Rainbow Families: Dear Home” exhibition

Projector X: Picturehouse

2–11 June 2023

Rainbow Families photoshoot

Ugly Carrot Studio

17 & 18 June 2023

Special product collaborations

Pourabucha & Kobashi

Campaign summary

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Family portraits

The focus of the campaign was to showcase rainbow families in Singapore through family portraits. We held our first round of photoshoot in May 2022 via an open call, where families could book slots through a website.

We held our second photoshoot at Alicia Community Centre in early June in collaboration with The T Project and TransBefrienders, who jointly invited over 100 individuals from the transgender and gender-diverse community.

In total, we captured over 90 rainbow families, whether blood or chosen.

Handwritten notes

During the photoshoots, participants were invited to write down notes of encouragement for those within the LGBTQ+ community, especially to those who may be struggling with their identities or who still face rejection at home.

The reception was tremendous — we never expected participants to fill up 8 booklets with more than 200 handwritten notes! Each note was scanned and uploaded below, and many of them were also printed and presented in the exhibition.

Art exhibition

The family portraits and handwritten notes were the focus in this exhibition.

The space was designed to evoke an image of a closet exploding as words of encouragement fly out of it. All around the space, family portraits of rainbow families remind visitors that love and acceptance can always be found.

The exhibition ran from 24 June – 3 July at Projector X: Riverside, and was visited by a number of political office holders.

Fun fact: we had to make a last minute change of venue due to the exhibition’s IMDA rating, so the exhibition design had to be re-worked to fit the new space!

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Rainbow Families: Dear Home” exhibition


Projector X: Picturehouse

2 Handy Rd, Level 5, Singapore 229233

Dates: 2–11 June 2023

Weekdays: 4pm–9.30pm
Weekends: 1pm–11pm


Rainbow Families: Dear Home” explores what home — and family — means to LGBTQ+ people in Singapore. Through video interviews, workshops, installations and even scents, we invited visitors to examine the many aspects of home and belonging.

The space is designed to have different rooms of a home — a kitchen, living room, and bedrooms. Each room held a different set of activities for visitors to participate in, and we worked with Crys Knick Knacks to create custom scents to make each room an immersive experience! 

In our documentary, we interviewed parents of LGBTQ+ persons, queer individuals, and counselling service providers to understand the nuance, tenderness, and hope that surrounds parental acceptance of queer people in Singapore.

Our letter-writing station took the form of a study desk on an elevated wooden platform. The soft chirp of birdsong and wafts of baby powder scent invited visitors to write a letter to themselves, their family, or other queer people in Singapore. Over the course of the exhibition, over 80 heartwarming (and sometimes heart-wrenching) letters to home were written.

Our paper craft workshop invites visitors to envision their homes by building miniature dioramas in the kitchen, the exhibition's communal space. By the end of the exhibition, a small queer village grew from within the space, and spilled out of the walls we originally designated for it.

IMDA gave this family-friendly exhibition an R18 rating.

Photo gallery: Exhibition

Photo gallery: Letters to home

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Rainbow families photoshoot

This is the second year we’re doing this photoshoot — but with a little twist! This time, we used a long exposure technique to capture a rainbow effect that shifts and flows around the photo!

We're proud to have captured over 60 rainbow families this year 🌈

Preview photos

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Special product collaborations

We’re so happy to collaborate with the awesome folks at Pourabucha and Kobashi to create some special pride products for the month of June!

Pourabucha (Kombucha)

We're excited to have collaborated with local kombucha brewery Pourabucha on a special pride bundle! The Rainbow Bundle: Dear Self is a limited edition collaboration pack of 2 bottles: Bringin’ Sexy Back (Cocoa Raspberry) and Yu So Cute (Yuzu Jasmine).

Part of the proceeds went towards funding our campaign!

Kobashi (Sourdough Donuts)

We're thrilled to have a special set of 6 pride sourdough donuts made for us by Kobashi! These 6 donuts are each inspired by a different pride flag.

Cereal Milk Glaze: LGBTQ+ rainbow flag
Brown Butter Maple Cream: Lesbian pride flag
Taro Coconut Cream: Bisexual pride flag
Hazelnut Pistachio Cream: Aromantic pride flag
Butterfly Pea Vanilla: Transgender pride flag
Lemon Curd: Non-binary pride flag

Part of the proceeds went towards funding our campaign!


Our team

✌️ Koh Zhi Kai ✌️

(he / him)

Project Co-Lead

Kai spearheads Rainbow Families. He also runs kai.classified, a commercial content creation service.


✌️ Teo Yu Sheng ✌️

(he / him)

Project Co-Lead

Yu Sheng is the founder of Heckin’ Unicorn, a local queer brand that gives back to the community.


✌️ Adzlynn Fizra ✌️

(she / her)

Exhibition Designer

Adzlynn is a filmmaker and freelance art director. She runs Studio 1914, a purpose-driven production company.


✌️ Toh Xing Jie ✌️

(he / him)

Principal Photographer

XJ is a commercial concept photographer and the founder of Ugly Carrot Studio, a hybrid creative agency.


✌️ Kyle Malinda-White ✌️

(he / him)

Public Relations

Kyle Malinda-White has spent the last few years in the LGBTQ+ community-building scene.


✌️ Mieke Song ✌️

(they / them)

Exhibition & Programming

Mieke is a visual artist and arts manager who hopes to platform more queer art in Singapore.


Our partners

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