Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

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Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays logo
Founded 1972, New York City, New York, United States
Area served Global
Focus LGBT activism
Method Campaigning, Advocacy, Support groups, Public speaking, education
Website www.PFLAG.org

Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) is a socio-political group of family members and friends of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Its mission statement describes the goals of PFLAG as promoting health and well being of LGBT persons as well as actively supporting their families and friends through education and positive advocacy. This work falls into three general areas:

  • Support, to cope with an adverse society
  • Education, to enlighten an ill-informed public
  • Advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights

In 2002 PFLAG welcomed intersex persons and their families as fully participating members.[1]

PFLAG has more than 500 affiliates throughout the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 11 other countries.

The acronym PFLAG is pronounced "P-FLAG" (/ˈpiːflæɡ/), and until removal of the hyphen in 1993 was officially styled in that manner.[2]

Contents

[edit] History

PFLAG contingent at San Francisco Pride, 2004.

The event that sparked PFLAG was in 1972 when Jeanne Manford was watching a TV news report and saw her son "being tossed down an escalator during a gay rights protest while the New York City Police Department stood by and watched."[3]

The idea for the organization arose out of Jeanne Manford's marching with her gay son Morty, carrying a sign saying: "Parents of Gays: Unite in Support for Our Children" in New York City's Christopher Street Liberation Day Gay Pride Parade (now known as Heritage of Pride) which started two years prior. People came up to Manford during and after the parade, applauding her actions and inspiring her to form a support group for gays and lesbians and their families. In time the scope of the organization – which turned into POG (Parents of Gays), later P-FLAG, and beginning in 1993, PFLAG – expanded to include bisexuals, and ultimately, transgender people.

[edit] Structure

PFLAG consists of a network of representatives (all individuals and families who are registered as PFLAG members), chapters (local groups of representatives), state councils (state-level organizations of representatives, chapters and at-large members) and 14 regions (regional affiliations of multiple state councils).

PFLAG has grown to comprise 14 regions, 500 chapters and 250,000 members in the United States.[citation needed]

[edit] Regions and state councils

  • Pacific Northwest PFLAG
    • Oregon State Council
    • Washington State Council
    • Alaska State Council
    • Montana State Council
    • Idaho State Council
  • Northeast Region PFLAG
    • Connecticut State Council
    • Massachusetts State Council
    • Maine State Council
    • New Hampshire State Council
    • Rhode Island State Council
    • Vermont State Council
  • Northern Plains Region PFLAG
    • Minnesota State Council
    • North Dakota State Council
    • South Dakota State Council
    • Wisconsin State Council
  • Gulf Region PFLAG
    • Alabama State Council
    • Florida State Council
    • Georgia State Council
    • Mississippi State Council
    • Puerto Rico State Council
  • Mountain West Region PFLAG
    • Arizona State Council
    • Colorado State Council
    • New Mexico State Council
    • Utah State Council
    • Wyoming State Council
  • Southern Pacific Region PFLAG
    • Southern California State Council
    • Hawaii State Council
  • Central Region PFLAG
    • Iowa State Council
    • Kansas State Council
    • Missouri State Council
    • Nebraska State Council
  • South Atlantic Region PFLAG
    • Kentucky State Council
    • North Carolina State Council
    • South Carolina State Council
    • Tennessee State Council
  • North Atlantic Region PFLAG
    • New Jersey State Council
    • New York State Council
    • Pennsylvania State Council
  • Great Lakes Region PFLAG
    • Illinois State Council
    • Indiana State Council
    • Michigan State Council
    • Ohio State Council
  • Mid-Pacific Region PFLAG
    • Northern California State Council
    • Nevada State Council
  • Southern Region PFLAG
    • Arkansas State Council
    • Louisiana State Council
    • Oklahoma State Council
    • Texas State Council
  • Mid Atlantic Region PFLAG
    • West Virginia State Council
    • Maryland State Council
    • Virginia State Council
    • Delaware State Council
    • DC Metro Area Chapter

[edit] Campaigns

"Stay Close" is a national campaign started in 2006 by PFLAG that encourages the family and friends of a LGBT persons to give them support.[4][dead link]

In the mid-1990s, "Project Open Mind" caused some controversy from Pat Robertson. He threatened to sue PFLAG and any television station that aired the project's ads, which showed clips of anti-LGBT quotes from several people, including Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and United States Sen. Jesse Helms.[5][dead link][6] The ads can currently be seen on the Commercial Closet webpage.

[edit] Conferences

The PFLAG Northeast Regional Conference for family, friends, and allies from across the region took place October 27 to October 29, 2006.[7] The venue was the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts USA. It was held in conjunction with the Transcending Boundaries Conference.

The 2007 PFLAG National Convention, sponsored by IBM, was planned for October 11 through October 17, 2007 in McLean, Virginia. The theme is "Family Voices Moving Equality Forward."[citation needed]

[edit] Outside of the United States

Similarly-purposed (and sometimes similarly-named) organizations have been established outside of the United States since PFLAG's 1972 establishment, although the majority of such organizations are unaffiliated with each other or with the US PFLAG. Most recently, a PFLAG organization in People's Republic of China, PFLAG China was established in June 2008 by Wu Youjian in Guangzhou after accepting her son's homosexuality[8]. Wu has received a grant from the AIDS Relief Fund for China for her work.

[edit] Other organizations

[edit] Opposition

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) was established in 1998 as a religious counter group to PFLAG and supporter of conversion therapy for LGBT individuals. In comparison to the visibility of PFLAG's representation at professional conferences, PFOX has been declined from numerous scientific conferences and denounced as an anti-gay front group.

[edit] Popular Culture

The organization is featured in the movie Prayers for Bobby.

[edit] See also

Portal icon LGBT portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ "PFLAG: Policy Statements". PFLAG. http://www.pflag.org/index.php?id=104#2. Retrieved 2010-06-30. [dead link]
  2. ^ "See banner styled P-FLAG". PFLAG. http://community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=279. Retrieved 2010-06-30. 
  3. ^ Rankin, Richard (Oct/November 2006, Issue #3). "Talking Tolerance". Wo! Magazine. Archived from the original on 2007-10-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20071008151014/http://www.wo-magazine.com/website/issuethree/wofront.html. Retrieved 2007-07-13. 
  4. ^ "Stay Close::Pflag". Stay Close. http://www.stayclose.org/. 
  5. ^ PFLAG: History
  6. ^ P-FLAG vs Pat Robertson
  7. ^ Transcending Boundaries Conference
  8. ^ "'PFLAG' China meets in Beijing". Global Times. 10:33 November 01 2010. http://www.globaltimes.cn/beijing/society/2010-11/588290.html. 

[edit] External links

PFLAG around the world :

Other links:
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