Fiona’s research focuses on social developmental psychology across the life course, family psychology, and systemic family therapy. She is currently the Director of the multidisciplinary Birkbeck institute for Gender and Sexuality (BiGS) and is on the Editorial Board of several journals. Using both statistical and narrative psychological research techniques, Fiona is an expert on implications of new family forms for parents and children in LGBTQ+ parent families, especially in relation to adoption of children from state care systems. Fiona has developed a range of Family Mapping Exercises for use with both adults and children in families to appreciate the varied psychosocial influences of diversity in genealogy in both research and affirmative systemic psychotherapy.
Brian Heaphy is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester. He has researched ‘chosen’ families and relationships for over 20 years and has authored or co-authored the books SameSex Intimacies; Late Modernity, Social Change and Personal Life; and Same Sex Marriages. He has undertaken several projects on these and related topics that were funded by the UK Economic andSocial Research Council, and has published over 50 articles on family, heterosexual and same sexrelationships, intimate citizenship and gender/sexual identities across the lifecourse. He is currently co-authoring a book Same Sex Divorce and Dissolution, and is researching dating app use amongstheterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer identified people before, during and after Covid-19. Overall, his work is concerned with the impact of social change on ‘ordinary lives’, and how such changes require some rethinking of citizenship.
Charlotte J. Patterson is the Commonwealth Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. Best known for her research on the role of sexual orientation in human development and family lives—and in particular for her work on child development in lesbian- and gay-parented families, Patterson is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and a past president of the Society for Psychological Study of Sexual and Gender Minority Issues (which is Division 44 of the American Psychological Association). She has won a number of awards, including the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy Award. She was a member of the United States Institute of Medicine Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health Issues, whose 2011 report, The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding, has been highly influential. More recently, Patterson co-chaired the United States National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine committee whose report, Understanding the Well-Being of LGBTQI+ Populations, was published in 2020.
Evan Wolfson founded and led Freedom to Marry, the campaign that won marriage in the United States, and is widely considered the architect of the ongoing global movement. In 1983, Wolfson wrote his Harvard Law School thesis on gay people and the freedom to marry. Citing his national leadership on marriage and his appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. James Dale, the National Law Journal in 2000 named Wolfson one of "the 100 most influential lawyers in America."
Newsweek/The Daily Beast dubbed Wolfson "the godfather of gay marriage" and
Time Magazine named him one of "the 100 most influential people in the world." Having achieved in 2015 the goal he had pursued for 32 years, Wolfson now devotes his time to advising and assisting diverse movements and causes in the U.S. and around the world eager to adapt the model and apply the lessons that made the Freedom toMarry campaign so successful. Wolfson wrote the book, Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry; has taught law and social change at several universities, including Georgetown LawCenter and Yale University; serves as Senior Counsel at Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, with 190+ offices in 80+ countries; and,overseeing a fund housed at Tides Advocacy, directs a team of Freedom toMarry alumni/experts coaching human rights efforts worldwide under the banner of Freedom to Marry Global.
Frode Grøstad is currently working as a psychotherapist in the field of alcohol and drug abuse in the NGO Blue Cross Norway. Before this he spent 25 years of his career as a parish priest and as a chaplain in both prisons and hospitals. In 2002 he was among the very fist openly gay persons in a same sex marriage being ordained in the Church of Norway. He is a trained group analyst.
Frode Grøstad is currently working as a psychotherapist in the field of alcohol and drug abuse in the NGO Blue Cross Norway. BefoDr. Geva Shenkman, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, clinical supervisor, and a senior lecturer at the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology at Reichman University. Within his clinical work he is seeing patients and supervising psychologists. For over a decade, he worked at the psychiatric division at Sheba Medical Center (Tel-Hashomer Hospital).He currently heads the LGBTQ+ Psychology Lab at Reichman University, conducting diverse research on coping and adaptation among LGBTQ+ individuals across their lifespan. Dr. Shenkman's primary research focus is on wellbeing and its relation to hostile-world scenarios among sexual minorities, with special attention to couplehood, parenthood,aging processes, and mental health within LGBTQ+ individuals and parent families.His research was supported by competitive grants from organizations like the Israel Science Foundation, the MinervaCenter on Intersectionality in Aging, and the Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research. Dr. Shenkman's research carries implications for therapists, researchers, and policymakers.re this he spent 25 years of his career as a parish priest and as a chaplain in both prisons and hospitals. In 2002 he was among the very fist openly gay persons in a same sex marriage being ordained in the Church of Norway. He is a trained group analyst.
I am 59 years old (in November), married to Simon Andersen for 17 years. I have a master in Development Geography, and is elected Deputy Chairman of Forskerforbundet/ the Norwegian Association of Researchers. I am the regional Chairman of “Open Church – an organisation in the Church of Norway”. I am a member of the Church of Norway’s LGBT advisory committee.
Michael Rosenfeld is a Professor of Sociology at Stanford University in the USA. He is a social demographer who studies mating and dating, and the Internet's effect on society. He studies family history and family law, especially asthey relate to same-sex couples and their children. He is the author of many articles, and the books The Age ofIndependence: Interracial Unions, Same-Sex Unions, and the Changing American Family
(2007) and The Rainbow after the Storm: Marriage Equality and Social Change in the US
(2021). Professor Rosenfeld served as an expert witness in the marriage equality case DeBoer v. Snyder (2014) in the US state of Michigan, testifying about the good outcomes of children raised by same-sex couples.
With over a decade of experience at Háttér Society, Hungary’s longest-
standing LGBTQI+ organization, she worked as a trainer, crisis hotline operator, and supervisor, developing a deep understanding of the challenges faced by LGBTQI+ individuals. She is also a co-founder of the Foundation for Hungarian Rainbow Families, reflecting her commitment to supporting diverse family structures. In recent years, her focus has shifted towards somatic psychotherapies, exploring the intricate links between the body-mind, and non-normative identities while she was trained in the methods of diverse body-psychotherapy approaches.
Lawyer, holds an LLM and MA in Human Rights, and a PhD in law. Prior to joining Háttér Society, she chaired the Human Rights LL.M and MA Programs at the Central European University and has been involved as a human rights expert in various research and monitoring activities on LGBT rights, primarily within the EU and the Council of Europe. Between 2014 and 2018 she was a member of the Hungarian expert team reporting to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. Her main research areas are the European Convention on Human Rights and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, with special focus on the role of comparative law, the European consensus inquiry and the protection of LGBTQI rights. She coordinates Háttér Society's strategic litigation efforts, and contributes to international advocacy.
Brian was the Co-Director of the successful marriage referendum in Ireland in 2015, the first in the world to succeed. He is a former co-chair of ILGA-Europe the Brussels-based advocacy organisation of 600 LGBTI+ member bodies in Europe and Central Asia. He was Executive Director of one of the main Irish LGBTI advocacy organisations, GLEN - Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, for 10 years. More recently he was the General Secretary of a political party in Ireland and currently works to support more women to be elected to national and local government.
Between 2001 and 2011 he was a researcher at the Center for Policy Studies at Central European University conducting research on equal opportunity policies. Between 2015 and 2017 he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Eötvös Loránd University teaching courses on sexual minorities, and between 2018 and 2020 researcher at the Faculty of Law of the same university focusing on hate crime victimization. Between 2017 and 2021 he was an expert at the Faculty of Law Enforcement at National University of Public Service developing curricula and conducting training on hate crimes for law enforcement and healthcare professionals. He has been working for Háttér Society since 2007, first as a volunteer then as a paid staff member, and between 2014 and 2022 as executive board member. He coordinates the advocacy and research activities of the organization and supports the work of the Legal Aid Service. Between 2012 and 2021 he also served on the board of the Hungarian LGBT Alliance, the national umbrella organization. Tamás participated in and coordinated over two dozen research projects in the past two decades on various aspects of LGBTQI lives including both quantitative and qualitative studies on social attitudes and lived experiences.
Teaching psychology and sexuality education for early childhood education students. Her field of research is sexuality education, childhood sexual abuse prevention and mental vulnerability in family. She is a certified sexual psychologist and trauma expert working with a diverse client population in her private praxis. As leader of LGBTQ+ section of Hungarian Psychological Association she works for improving awareness, knowledge and affirmative attitude towards LGBTQ+ people.
Yanzi started his career as a human rights defender since 2007. He sat up the first legal advocacy LGBT organization in China, LGBT Rights Advocacy China, in 2013. The organization has built up LGBT friendly lawyers network and LGBT friendly journalists network through their impact litigation on issues of employment discrimination, textbook stigma, media censorship on the ground of SOGIE and HIV+. They launched the Marriage Equality campaign in China in 2019 which mobilized more than 180 thousands of people joined the legal comments on Same-sex Marriage to their Civil Code. their marriage equality network keep working on queer family community building, research, international advocacy and lawmakers engagement while civil society organizations have been facing political pressure during the past few years.
Matt has over twelve years' communications experience, six within leadership roles in sectors including sexual health, human rights and LGBTQ+ equalities at organizations including Liberty, akt (The Albert Kennedy Trust) and Terrence Higgins Trust. He has vast experience in media relations, partnership work and developing strategy and infrastructure for growing communications functions.
Matt was the former Chair of LGBTQ+ wellbeing charity London Friend and is a co-founder of LGBTQ+ non-profit events troupe LOOSE CHANGE.
He was born in Budapest, Hungary. He studied communications, comparative literature and theatre at the University of Pécs. After studying at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and Paideia Institute in Stockholm, he returned to Hungary and took the initiative to get involved in a Jewish civic organisation called Marom Budapest. The association addresses third-generation Jewish identity and social justice. It acts as a mediator between various civic groups and major institutions. One of its main projects is the Bánkitó Festival, which has become one of Hungary's top five festivals. Adam is 31 years old, director of Marom Budapest since 2003 and also founder and director of Aurora Cultural Centre.
A nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering openness, diversity, and inclusion in workplaces in Hungary and beyond. With more than 1100 signatories of its manifesto, WeAreOpen is one of the biggest business coalitions in Europe, centered around the values of openness. This scope and the innovative methodology the organization uses to build open corporate cultures make WeAreOpen a very authentic voice in the field of social sustainability in Europe. Nora's multidisciplinary background—spanning diplomacy, nationalism studies, human rights, political sciences and finance—uniquely positions her to guide the organization's vision and growth.
Robert Wintemute is a Professor of Human Rights Law at King's College London. Originally from Calgary in Canada, he studied law at McGill University in Montréal and practised law in New York, before doing his doctorate on “Sexual Orientation and Human Rights” at the University of Oxford. His pro bono legal work in the European Court of Human Rights has included drafting, on behalf of NGOs, third-party interventions (amicus curiae briefs) on international and comparative LGB human rights law in such cases as Karner v. Austria (2003), E.B. v. France (2008), Schalk & Kopf v. Austria (2010), X & Others v.Austria (2013), Vallianatos & Others v. Greece (2013), Oliari & Others v. Italy (2015), and Fedotova &Others v. Russia (2023). He was also the lawyer for the applicants in Taddeucci & McCall v. Italy (2016),Beizaras & Levickas v. Lithuania (2020), and Macatė v. Lithuania (2023).
His research centers on issues of discrimination, human rights, citizenship, LGBTQ+ and equality policies. He has been involved in numerous domestic and international research projects and has published and edited several books. Among his publications are "Beyond the Pink Curtain: Everyday Life of LGBT People in Eastern Europe" (co-authored with J. Takács, Peace Institute, 2007) and "Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe: Mobilizing against Equality" (co-authored with D. Paternotte, Rowman & Littlefield International, 2017). For the latter, he was awarded the ARRS Excellent in Science Award in 2018.
From 2017 to 2021, he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana. He is currently a co-editor at the journal Social Politics (Oxford University Press), the head of the research unit at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, and the President of the Slovenian Sociological Association.
Her research and teaching focus on children in planned lesbian mother and gay father families, as well as on same-sex attracted, lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth, and gender nonconforming youth. She is involved in international studies, including a study on gay fathers who have children through surrogacy in the Netherlands, France, and the UK, with a focus on early parent-child relationships and attachment. Additionally, Professor Bos is a co-investigator of the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), which is the longest-running and largest prospective investigation of lesbian parents and their children in the United States and is initiated by Nanette Gartrell.
Judit Zeller works as a senior legal expert at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and as an associate professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Pécs, where she teaches human rights law and psychology. Her current academic interest focuses on the challenges of human rights in the 21st century, especially in the field of social rights. At the HCLU she works in the Privacy Project. She coordinates strategic litigation and advocacy of cases concerning privacy in the health care system (patients’ rights) and in the educational system (children’s rights and parental rights).
