updated 26 September 2009
Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG) is a national non-profit organization with over 200,000 members and supporters and over 500 affiliates in the United States. This vast grassroots network is cultivated, resourced and serviced by the PFLAG national office, located in Washington, D.C., the national Board of Directors and 13 Regional Directors. Visit the PFLAG National website for more information.
We, the parents, families and friends of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, celebrate diversity and envision a society that embraces everyone, including those of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Only with respect, dignity and equality for all will we reach our full potential as human beings, individually and collectively. PFLAG welcomes the participation and support of all who share in, and hope to realize this vision.
PFLAG 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. Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays provides opportunity for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity, and acts to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity.
In addition to fulfilling its traditional role as a PFLAG chapter with support for parents of lesbian and gay children, PFLAG Portland has a special emphasis on serving the needs of transgender persons and the parents of transgender children.
In partnership with the PFLAG Oregon State Council and Basic Rights Oregon, PFLAG Portland has launched a new effort to reach families of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in the African American community in Portland. The goal of this project is to create and mentor a stand alone PFLAG chapter in the African American community and for the African American community.
In 1972, Jeanne Manford marched with her son in New York City’s Gay Pride parade, holding a sign that read, “Parents, Unite in Support of our Gay Children.” People standing in the crowd were so moved by Jeanne’s presence that they rushed to her in the street, tears in their eyes, asking that she speak to their parents. Jeanne, with her husband Jules, began a support group. The first formal meeting took place in March of 1973 at a local church with approximately 20 people in attendance.
Across the country in Portland, a support and education group for parents of gay and lesbian children was also taking form. In 1973, Oregon witnessed the first documented occurrence of a parent speaking out in support of a gay child. In 1975, Portland resident Rita Knapp testified in support of gay rights before the Oregon Legislature with a powerful and heartfelt speech suprising legislators not expecting such words from an otherwise unassuming “preacher’s wife”. The next year, Rita and Charles Knapp and Ann and Bill Shepherd began to hold meetings in their homes, calling the group “Parents of Gays.” In 1976, Ann Shepherd attempted to place an ad in the Oregonian and on several local TV and radio stations to build awareness for the newly formed group, but none would accept the advertisement. Undaunted, the group designed and distributed fliers in Portland’s gay bars and spread information about their organization by word of mouth.
On May 15, 1977 KATU aired a “Town Hall” program on the “question of gays in society”. Members of P-FLAG (as it was then known) were asked to participate. Despite the brutal insults hurled at them, the program introduced P-FLAG and its positive message to the broader community. Ann Shepherd began to receive phone calls from other parents of lesbian and gay children, and the organization grew.
In 1981, members of P-FLAG Portland met in Los Angeles with leaders from other groups of parents who had banded together in mutual support of their children. In 1982, the Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Inc., then representing some 20 groups nationally, was incorporated in California and granted non-profit, tax-exempt status. In 1982 P-FLAG Portland was also granted tax exempt status and incorporated in the State of Oregon, thanks to the work of attorney Bill Shepherd.
P-FLAG saw a dramatic rise in membership in 1988 with the emergence of the Oregon Citizen’s Alliance (OCA) and its relentless campaigns directed towards our gay and lesbian loved ones.
The past 20 years have seen marvelous changes in Oregon and America. Same-sex marriage is legal in 4 states, domestic partnerships in many more, and over half of America now supports the equality of LGBTQ Americans. The OCA withered and disbanded in the face of changing public opinion. Oregon has, 35 years after Rita Knapp first testified in favor of it, a Sexual Orientation/ Gender Identity Antidiscrimination Law. Domestic Partnerships are a reality, but Marriage Equality is not. A shameful amendment to our state Constitution, Amendment 36 - pushed by new groups inside and outside Oregon continuing the OCA’s campaign of misinformation and hate - denies our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender loved ones’ full inclusion in society. As in the past, PFLAG will be at the center of this new statewide debate with our powerful message: We, too, represent “family.”
