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
Founder(s) Jeanne Manford
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 an organization of family members and friends of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

PFLAG has more than 350 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 the organization was officially styled in that manner.[1]

Contents

History [edit]

Jeanne Manford marching with her now-famous sign. Reactions to this sign led Manford to create a support group, which evolved into PFLAG.

In April 1972, Jeanne Manford, an elementary school teacher, and her husband were at home in Flushing, Queens, when they learned from a hospital's telephone call that her son Morty, a gay activist, had been beaten while distributing flyers inside the fiftieth annual Inner Circle dinner, a political gathering in New York City.[2][3] In response, she wrote a letter of protest to the New York Post that identified herself as the mother of a gay protester and complained of police inaction.[4] She gave interviews to radio and television shows in several cities in the weeks that followed, sometimes accompanied by her husband or son.[5] On June 25, she participated with her son in the New York Pride March, carrying a hand-lettered sign that read "Parents of Gays Unite in Support for Our Children".[6] Prompted by their enthusiastic reception, they developed an idea for an organization of the parents of gays and lesbians that could be, she later said, "a bridge between the gay community and the heterosexual community".[7] They were soon holding meetings for such parents, with her husband participating as well. She called him "a very articulate person ... a much better speaker than I. He was right along with me on everything."[8]

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.[9] In particular, in 1998, gender identity was added to the mission of PFLAG after a vote at their annual meeting in San Francisco.[10][11] PFLAG was the first national LGBT organization to officially adopt a transgender-inclusion policy for its work.[12] In 2002, PFLAG's Transgender Network, also known as TNET, became PFLAG's first official "Special Affiliate," recognized with the same privileges and responsibilities as regular chapters.[10]

Campaigns [edit]

PFLAG contingent at San Francisco Pride, 2004.

"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.[13][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,[14] which showed clips of anti-LGBT quotes from several people, including Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and United States Sen. Jesse Helms.[15][16] The ads can currently be seen on the Commercial Closet webpage.

Outside of the United States [edit]

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.[17]

Other organizations [edit]

Popular Culture [edit]

The organization is featured in the TV movie Prayers for Bobby.

In the US version of "Queer as Folk", characters Debbie Novotny and Jennifer Taylor are members of the organisation with Debbie serving as chapter president and Jennifer joining soon after finding out her son is gay.

See also [edit]

Portal icon LGBT portal

References [edit]

  1. ^ "See banner styled P-FLAG". PFLAG. Retrieved 2010-06-30. 
  2. ^ Lambert, Bruce (15 May 1992). "Morty Manford, 41, a Lawyer And Early Gay-Rights Advocate". New York Times. Retrieved 10 September 2012. 
  3. ^ Lii, Jane H. (3 November 1996). "Unlikely Supporter of Gay Rights Recalls Pivotal Night". New York Times. 
  4. ^ Eric Marcus, Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights (NY: HarperCollins, 2002), 170-1
  5. ^ Marcus, Making Gay History, 172
  6. ^ Marcus, Making Gay History, 173
  7. ^ Marcus, Making Gay History, 175
  8. ^ Marcus, Making Gay History, 174-5
  9. ^ "History". Retrieved 2012-04-09. 
  10. ^ a b http://community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=398
  11. ^ "PFLAG: Policy Statements". PFLAG. Retrieved 2010-06-30. [dead link]
  12. ^ http://community.pflag.org/page.aspx?pid=380
  13. ^ "Stay Close::Pflag". Stay Close. 
  14. ^ Gallagher, John (November 12, 1996). "Making airwaves". The Advocate. pp. 30, 32. Retrieved 6 September 2012. 
  15. ^ P-FLAG vs Pat Robertson
  16. ^ Carmody, John (November 10, 1995). "The TV Column". Washington Post. p. F8. Retrieved 6 September 2012. 
  17. ^ "'PFLAG' China meets in Beijing". Global Times. 10:33 November 01 2010. 

External links [edit]

PFLAG-like organizations in other countries:

North America [edit]

Europe [edit]

Asia, Africa and Oceania [edit]
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