We are happy to announce that the members of Grace UCC are again providing a safe, accepting and loving location for people who foster acceptance and tolerance of diversity. With the recreation of the Lancaster PFLAG, Grace UCC has bravely stepped forward to encourage love and diversity in our local community. PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered 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. PFLAG celebrates diversity and envisions a society that embraces everyone, including those of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. We invite all members of Grace UCC or surrounding communities to become a member of the Lancaster PFLAG organization. Our meetings will be held Wednesday evenings each month. Contact William Montgomery, Chris Chew, or Pastor Maryann for more information or to join the organization.
The idea for PFLAG began in 1972 when Jeanne Manford marched with her gay son in New York's Pride Day parade. The first formal meeting took place in March 1973 at a local church. Approximately 20 people attended.
By 1980, PFLAG, then known as Parents FLAG, began to distribute information to educational institutions and communities of faith nationwide and established itself as a source of information for the general public. In 1981, members decided to launch a national organization. The first PFLAG office was established in Los Angeles under founding president Adele Starr.
In 1982, the Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Inc., then representing some 20 groups, was incorporated in California and granted non-profit, tax-exempt status. In 1987, PFLAG re-located to Denver, under President Ellinor Lewallen. Also in the 1980's, PFLAG became involved in opposing Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade and worked to end the U.S. military's efforts to discharge lesbians?more than a decade before military issues came to the forefront of the GLBT movement.
In 1990, following a period of significant growth, PFLAG employed an Executive Director, expanded its staff, and consolidated operations in Washington, D.C. In the early 1990s, PFLAG chapters in Massachusetts helped pass the first Safe Schools legislation in the country. In 1993, PFLAG added the word "Families" to the name, and added bisexuals to its mission and work. By the mid-1990s a PFLAG family was responsible for the Department of Education's ruling that Title 9 also protected gay and lesbian students from harassment based on sexual orientation. Also in the mid-1990s, PFLAG put the Religious Right on the defensive, when Pat Robertson threatened to sue any station that carried our Project Open Mind advertisements showing examples of his anti-gay statements. The resulting media coverage drew national attention to our message linking hate speech with hate crimes and GLBT teen suicide. In 1998, PFLAG added transgendered people and their loved ones.
At the turn of the century, PFLAG began to develop nationally coordinated programs in order to better focus the work of our grassroots network. Programs such as our From Our House to the School House campaign, Families of Color Network, Families United Against Hate are already showing results. Most recently the PFLAG National office has launched its new program From Our House to the State House under the direction of the current Interim Executive Director, Ron Schlittler.
