Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

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PFLAG contingent at San Francisco Pride 2004.

Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) is a group of family members and friends of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people. According to PFLAG's mission statement, the organization "promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights." [1]

The acronym PFLAG is pronounced as P-FLAG [piːflæg], and was once officially styled in that manner.

1 History
2 Notable Chapters
3 Campaigns
4 Conferences
5 Popular Culture
6 External links

[edit] History

The idea for the organization arose out of the New York City Gay Pride Parade in 1972, in which Jeanne Manford marched alongside her gay son Morty, carrying a sign saying: "Parents of Gays: Unite in Support of Our Children." Many people came up to Manford during and after the parade, applauding her actions and inspiring her to form a support group for LGBT people and their families, which turned into POG (Parents of Gays), and subsequently PFLAG.

PFLAG has continued to grow since then, and now comprises 500 chapters and 250,000 members nationwide.

[edit] Notable Chapters

[edit] Campaigns

Stay Close[2] is a national campaign started in 2006 by PFLAG that encourages the family and friends of a LGBT persons to give them support.

[edit] Conferences

The PFLAG Northeast Regional Conference[3] for family, friends, and allies from across the region took place October 27th thru October 29th, 2006. 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, will take place October 11 through October 17, 2007 in McLean, Virginia. The theme is "Family Voices Moving Equality Forward."

[edit] Popular Culture

PFLAG was mentioned in Chuck Palahniuk's novel, Invisible Monsters. A PFLAG meeting is shown at the end of the 1999 film, But I'm a Cheerleader. Sharon Gless' character, "Deborah Novotny," is the president of the local PFLAG chapter in Pittsburgh on the American version of the show Queer as Folk.