Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

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]

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.

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

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.

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]}

Popular Culture

The organization is featured in the movie Prayers for Bobby.

See also

LGBT portal

• Brenda Howard Memorial Award

Other organizations

• Tehila (Israel)
• Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (United Kingdom)
• PFLAG Canada (Separately originated, similarly named)
• Children Of Lesbians And Gays Everywhere (United States)
• Family Equality Council (North America)
• Tels Quels (Belgium)
• Families for Sexual Diversity (Latin America)
• CONTACT (France)
• BEFAH (Germany)
• Association of Fathers and Mothers of Gays and Lesbians (Spain)
• FELS (Switzerland)
• PFLAG Vietnam (Vietnam)

Opposition

• Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays -- counter group to PFLAG

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

External links

• Official PFLAG website
• International PFLAG Groups^{[dead link]}
• USA PFLAG Groups^{[dead link]}
• PFLAG Brisbane (recipient of prize-money) website
• Stay Close campaign website^{[dead link]}

PFLAG around the world :

• PFLAG CANADA (Canada)
• PFLAG UK (United Kingdom)
• FFLAG (United Kingdom)
• CONTACT (France)
• TelsQuels Parents (Belgium)
• BEFAH (Germany)
• TEHILA (Hebrew: תהל"ה) (Israel)
• AGEDO (Italia)
• FELS (Switzerland)
• AMPGIL (Spain)
• PFLAG VIETNAM (Vietnamese)

Other links:

• Families Joined by Love^{[dead link]} - Books and resources for LGBT Families.