PFLAG

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PFLAG activists with flags at San Francisco Pride

PFLAG [ ˈpiːflæɡ ] is the acronym for Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays and includes non-profit organizations and the like. a. in the USA , Canada , Australia and China for friends and loved ones of LGBT people. The American PFLAG and PFLAG Canada developed independently in the 1970s. The American PFLAG, established in 1972, today has around 200,000 members organized in 400 local chapters. Until 1993 the proper spelling was P-FLAG. As a non-profit organization in the ten Canadian provinces, PFLAG Canada is divided into 70 local chapters and / or contact persons. In 1989, PFLAG began to develop in Australia. PFLAG China was founded in 2008 based on these models.

history

United States

US President Barack Obama explains the history of PFLAG at the Human Rights Campaign (October 2009)
Plaque commemorating the first PFLAG meeting in Greenwich Village in 1973

The foundation of the American PFLAG goes back to the elementary school teacher Jeanne Manford and her husband Jules from Flushing . In 1972 they learned that their gay son Morty, who had already been arrested at Stonewall, had been beaten while handing out leaflets . She then wrote a protest letter to the New York Post . In the following weeks, interviews with Manford - partly accompanied by her husband or son - were broadcast on radio and television. The feedback encouraged them to organize meetings with other stakeholders. For the first such meeting on March 26, 1973 in the "Metropolitan-Duane Methodist Church " in Greenwich Village , around twenty interested people appeared. As a result, similar groups emerged in other areas of the United States. In connection with the "National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights" 1979, a demonstration with 75,000 to 125,000 participants in Washington, DC , the organization held its first nationwide meeting. For the tenth anniversary of the organization, it had over 8,000 members in 80 local groups.

First Lady Barbara Bush attracted attention with unfamiliar tones from the White House when she wrote a letter to PFLAG in May 1990 that declared that discrimination against homosexuals was intolerable. Only a few days earlier, the WHO had removed homosexuality from its diagnosis code for diseases . PFLAG had now reached the west coast and held its annual convention in California for the first time in October 1990 . A full-time managing director was employed and the headquarters relocated to Washington DC. PFLAG was the first LGBT association to include gender and transgender issues in its objectives.

In 2013, PFLAG founder Jeanne Manford was posthumously honored by US President Barack Obama with the Presidential Citizens Medal .

Canada

In the 1970s, heterosexual family members of homosexuals in Toronto began to organize as "Parents Of Gays" (POG). From November 14, 1978, the group met regularly at the Metropolitan Community Church in Toronto. Brent Hawkes, Canadian minister and champion of gay rights, and Betty Fairchild, author of guides for homosexual family members and co-founder of PFLAG chapters in Washington, DC and Denver , were among the pioneers in enabling the organization to run a telephone helpline. At the same time, an organization “Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays” (FFLAG) was established in Toronto with similar goals. In 1983, a “Parents Of Gays” group began to be formed in Mississauga around Anne Rutledge and Mary Jones from Brantford , which was first listed in 1985 in the “ Self-Help Groups” section of “Chatelaine”, a Canadian lifestyle and women's magazine, with Jones as the contact person has been. From April 1986 the group met under the name "Parents of Lesbians and Gays".

Media reports in the 1980s and 1990s gave rise to more local chapters in Canada. In 2003 the movement was renamed “PFLAG Canada” to differentiate itself from the American organization of the same name. In 2012 Rob Ford caused a sensation after years of distancing himself from LGBT issues when he and PFLAG activists hoisted a rainbow flag for IDAHOT on the town hall.

Australia

Victoria PFLAG group at Melbourne Pride 2011

In 1986 June Smythe from Kewdale, a suburb of Perth , contacted the American PFLAG organization in order to get to know other victims. Against the background that homosexuality was still a criminal offense for men in Western Australia until the end of 1989, her attempts to set up a group in Australia were initially unsuccessful. In February 1989 Margaret and John Pugh from Perth came into contact with her, so that on December 2, 1989 - five days before the legal reform - a PFLAG local group with nineteen participants was established for regular meetings in the suburb of Wilson. One parent couple, Heather and Doug Horntvedt, moved to Sydney in 1990 , where they founded another local group, which became the nucleus of others on the east coast. In 2011, John and Margaret Pugh were awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for their commitment .

China

On June 28, 2008, the former soccer player Hu Zhijun founded PFLAG China in Guangzhou . As a result, PFLAG organized regular LGBT conferences, initially in Guangzhou and later in Beijing . In 2012, PFLAG China set up telephone counseling for relatives of homosexuals.

PFLAG in film and television

The organization is referenced in several films. In the 2009 film Prayers for Bobby , the leading actress Sigourney Weaver becomes a member of PFLAG and takes part in Christopher Street Day with PFLAG banners . The film "Aching Truth" from 2000 (original title "The Truth About Jane") also shows how the leading actress Stockard Channing joins a local PFLAG group. In the Canadian - US television series " Queer as Folk " Sharon Gless plays the chair of a local PFLAG chapter, while Sherry Miller portrays an affected mother who joins PFLAG during the course of the series. In the Canadian series Out With Dad , the two main characters take part in several episodes of PFLAG meetings.

See also

Web links

Commons : PFLAG  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jodi O'Brien: Encyclopedia of Gender and Society . Volume 1 SAGE Publications , 2009, p. 626 ISBN 9781412909167 ( limited preview )
  2. ↑ See banners labeled with P-FLAG . PFLAG. Archived from the original on July 24, 2012. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
  3. ↑ Bruce Lambert: Morty Manford, 41, a Lawyer And Early Gay-Rights Advocate . In: New York Times , May 15, 1992. Retrieved September 10, 2012. 
  4. ↑ Jane H. Lii: Unlikely Supporter of Gay Rights Recalls Pivotal Night . In: New York Times , November 3, 1996. Retrieved September 10, 2012. 
  5. ^ A b c Eric Marcus : Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights . HarperCollins , New York 2002, pp. 170–175 ISBN 9780060933913 ( limited preview )
  6. ↑ Jo Thomas: 75,000 March in Capital in Drive To Support Homosexual Rights . In: New York Times , October 15, 1979
  7. ↑ Judy Klemesrud: For Homosexuals' Parents, Strength in community In: New York Times , October 10, 1983
  8. ↑ Evans Rowl, Robert Novak: Bush and the gay lobby . In: Washington Post , May 25, 1990
  9. ↑ Lilly Eng: Gays' Families Come Out of the Closet . In: Los Angeles Times , October 10, 1990. 
  10. ↑ Jeanne Manford: 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal Recipient . In: The White House , March 11, 2013
  11. ↑ 40th anniversary of MCC Toronto . In: Metropolitan Community Church Toronto , July 6, 2013
  12. ^ Contact address "Parents Of Gays" In: The Body Politic , page 42, July 1979
  13. ^ Toronto PFLAG: Mission and History
  14. ↑ Nandy Jones, Jennifer Jones: Lives Lived: Mary Thornton Jones, 82 . In: The Globe and Mail , June 20, 2014
  15. ↑ Sean Foreman: PFLAG in Ontario, Canada. In: soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi (Google Groups). February 10, 1995. Retrieved July 15, 2017 .
  16. ^ Obituary for Mary Jones In: PFLAG Toronto Newsletter Feb. 2014
  17. ↑ PFamily Tree In: Daily Xtra 20 June 2007
  18. ↑ David Rider, Paul Moloney: Surprise! Mayor Rob Ford appears at the gay event . In: Toronto Star , May 17, 2012
  19. ^ History of PFLAG in Perth . In: PFLAG Western Australia
  20. ↑ Australia Day Honors 2011 & Bravery Awards ( memento March 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) . In: Government House Perth , 2011
  21. ^ Li Ying: Unconditional love In: Global Times , December 7, 2014
  22. ^ Colum Murphy: Coming Out in China: Parents of LGBT Fight for Their Children's Acceptance In: Wall Street Journal September 18, 2014
  23. ^ "PFLAG" China meets in Beijing . Global Times . November 1, 2010. Archived from the original on September 3, 2012. Retrieved on July 15, 2017.