“We exist, there are children with same-sex parents in Croatia and it is important that our voice is heard,” said Daniel Martinovic of Rainbow Families, an association for LGBTIQ people having or planning to have children.
The picture book entitled “My Rainbow Family,” to be presented on January 18, is intended for pre-school age children.
Croatia, the newest member state of the European Union since 2013, has seen a gradual improvement in gay rights in recent years.
Since 2014, homosexual couples can register as “life partners” in Croatia.
The country has granted gay couples the same rights as heterosexuals, except on child adoption.
The group plans to print 500 copies of the book, which will be distributed free of charge, and will also have an online edition, Martinovic said.
But the Catholic Church-backed Vigilare group claimed that the book would be donated to schools and kindergartens and has asked the education minister to consider blocking the “entry of this controversial literature into Croatian schools.”
“It is an action hiding a clear political and ideological agenda,” Vigilare said in an open letter to the minister.
But Martinovic said there were no such plans as books cannot be distributed to any educational institution without the education ministry’s prior approval.
He said the idea behind the project was that children having same-sex parents can read about such families and not only about heterosexual ones.
The Catholic Church still plays an important role in Croatia’s society. Nearly 90 percent of the country’s 4.2 million people are Roman Catholic.