Euro-MP celebrates diversity on World Family Day

1.16.15pm GMT Tue 16th May 2006

As an Italian Organisation celebrates yesterday's "World Family Day" (15.05.06), London's Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford is calling for the event to recognise the diversity of families, not just one type. She said:

"The "family values" lobby sometimes seem to focus only on a traditional family of working husband married to stay-at-home mum who looks after the kids. While that kind of family is absolutely valid and admirable, it is not the only form of committed and loving relationship that qualifies to be celebrated."

"In the UK alone there are 80,000 same-sex families and an estimated 1 in 10 families are step families. In an inclusive society we must get celebrate the support that families of all shapes and sizes give to their members. It is the quality of the commitment, not the structure of the family, that counts."

"I want "World Family Day" to applaud all the different kinds of family: nuclear families, step families, adopted families, foster families, single parent families, same-sex families, extended families and many more. It is tough, though rewarding, to sustain any of them."