In this blog post, "Love Makes Family," author and diversity advocate Marcel Kahl explores the diversity of family and shows that family life doesn't have to be a normal "mom-dad thing." You've probably heard of "rainbow families" before. Rainbow families are families where the children live with two same-sex partners as one family.

Marcel shares his story, provides information, and offers many tips to bring the topic more to the forefront.

MARCEL KAHL Married to his husband Christian and their twins, he lives in beautiful northern Hesse. Marcel has been working in healthcare since 2018 and pursues his passion for (diverse) children's books both on a voluntary and part-time basis. He was honored for his commitment by the Kassel-based initiative "Open for Diversity" in 2021. In 2022, he was placed on the PROUT AT WORK list. His first children's book, "Daddy, Do You Have a Baby in Your Belly?", will be published by klein & groß Verlag on July 31, 2023.  Instagram: @regenbogenpapi

About Marcel Kahl and his family

We are the Kahl family. The rainbow Kahl family. What's different about us? Nothing. Our family consists of our eight-year-old twin boys and us two dads.

Eleven years ago, after we had already been together for a proud eleven years, we decided to become parents and began searching for our path . I had always wanted children, my husband not so much. But ultimately, we decided to have them. We had and still have so much love to give, we want and wanted to leave a legacy. The desire to have children is completely natural, so why shouldn't we, as a gay couple, have it?

By the way, homosexuality exists in approximately 1,500 animal species—the main thing is that it's fun. Homophobia only exists in humans. I highly recommend Malte Anders' #homology class for this.

Adoption, Foster Care & Surrogacy

Adoption wasn't possible back then, and foster care scared us and seemed rather hopeless. And then there was surrogacy. All very easy in America for just a mere €150,000. Irony off. Who doesn't have that kind of money lying around?! Of course, that was completely out of the question, so we continued researching – for three years! A well-known couple from France finally drew our attention to an article that ultimately turned out to be our path forward. It was about surrogacy.

A feeling of respect

We left our city life in Frankfurt behind and moved back to the countryside in northern Hesse. Naturally, we had concerns about whether we, as a gay couple with children, would fit in the countryside, and how things would develop when the children started school, etc. In retrospect, our concerns were unfounded, as we never had any negative experiences. Quite the opposite! Old ladies congratulated us on our rights , and the community worker expressed her respect for us when we registered our children. And so it remains to this day—parent council members at daycare and school, and board members for various functions. It gave and gives us a feeling of respect, acceptance, and security.

Show diversity & raise awareness

But since my volunteer work, beyond the boundaries of our community, I've repeatedly noticed that while (almost) all of us are open to diversity and perhaps even embrace it, the facilities in various facilities still have a lot of room for improvement. For example, does your daycare have a black doll? No? Feel free to stop by LITTLE ASHÉ .

I have made it my mission

So I've made it my mission to bring diversity to children's books in a wide variety of settings. I want every child to find themselves reflected in a children's book, and in doing so, I extend a hand to everyone. Here you can find my list of recommendations for diversity children’s books

How can institutions be supported in this?

Through appeals for donations in the newspaper, on social media, and word of mouth, a significant amount of money was raised, enabling our entire community to be equipped. Various initiatives, such as Open for Diversity, PROUT AT WORK, Antolin (Westermann Verlag), Impact of Diversity, and many more, are supporting the #diversityinchildren'sbooks project. The need is there!

Want to do something like this too? Then go for it!

Reach out to parent councils, involved parents, and school administrators and consider ideas together! Children's art exhibitions, bake sales, fundraising appeals, and summer festivals with ticket sales for a raffle—local businesses are very generous in this regard and donate non-cash prizes.

Are you an organization and/or can you collaborate with one? Can the local supermarket support you and organize a joint initiative, such as collecting deposit vouchers for the organization(s)?

For example, ask the publishers directly and offer to post a review on social media in return. Children's book publishers are often very generous and appreciative. Thankfully, many publishers have become so much more diverse, for which I am very grateful!

Just do it!

Hands out of your pockets, sleeves rolled up, don't just talk about it and possibly overthink it – JUST DO IT!

How to find Marcel and ask him all your questions

Do you have any questions, suggestions, and/or a request to come by? Let me know! You can find me on Instagram @regenbogenpapi or send me an email at regenbogenpapi@gmx.de .

Many greetings from
Marcel aka Rainbow Dad

PS: For more recommendations on diversity children's books, including my first children's book , "Daddy, Do You Have a Baby in Your Belly?" ( coming in summer 2023), visit my Instagram account. @regenbogenpapi