Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) records

Collection — manuscript box: 83 - folder 1

Identifier: 7616

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Series I contains files related to P-FLAG's administration, including the Board of Directors, Regional Directors, affiliates and chapters. Includes materials related to development, finances, strategic planning, personnel, and membership, as well as the daily operations of the P-FLAG offices. Information regarding the "organizational grievance" of 1996-1997 is also included. Also, oversize meeting diagrams.

Series II includes the correspondence of various P-FLAG officials, as well as some correspondence related to specific P-FLAG projects, for example the Respect All Youth (RAY) Project.

Series III contains general subject files including (among others): P-FLAG Directories; the Public Services Announcements Project; the Spouse Task Force and Straight Spouse Support Network; lesbian/gay/bisexual youth issues, including youth suicide; various advocacy projects and lobbying efforts, including the Defense of Marriage and Employment Non-Discrimination Acts, the "Parents, Schools, Values" congressional hearings, materials for the Campaign for Military Services project, and testimony regarding discrimination of gays by the Boy Scouts of America.

Series IV contains files pertaining to the AIDS crisis, including correspondence and subject files. Series V pertains to the Family AIDS Support Project, including administrative information, correspondence, and general subject files.

Series VI contains P-FLAG publications, including draft and final versions, as well as media advertisements. Also, some annotated reprints distributed by P-FLAG. Some P-FLAG chapter publications are also included, including chapter newsletters.

Series VII pertains to Project Open Mind, a media campaign aimed at raising awareness about violence towards gays and lesbians. Includes the POM Campaign Manual, information about POM consultants, advertising (including TV buys), endorsements, fundraising, financial information, strategic planning, the POM Presentation Handbook, and POM training in Atlanta, Houston, St. Paul/Minneapolis, Seattle, and Tulsa.

Series VIII includes documentation pertaining to P-FLAG National Conventions: national guidelines, correspondence, registration, organizing/planning of convention, program/workshops, convention weekend materials, and publicity. Also includes materials related to P-FLAG regional conferences, as well as P-FLAG Leadership Training Institutes, which took place in association with the national conventions beginning in 1993.

Series IX consists of audiocassettes from P-FLAG National Conventions, as well as other tapes produced by P-FLAG. The numbering system was established by P-FLAG (except for tr7676a, a non-professional recording from the 1993 Convention in New Orleans). Tapes identified as "missing" were not received from P-FLAG. Occassional lacunae in the numbering system are identified: "Tape X does not exist."

Series X consists of news clippings, photocopied articles, and press releases about P-FLAG, gays and lesbians, family of gays and lesbians, etc.

Series XI consists of photographs of conferences, programs, PFLAGpole publications, scholarships, etc.

Dates

1972 - 2009
Majority of material found within 1981 - 2009

Creator

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (Organization)
Parents & Friends of Gays (Organization)
Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (Organization)

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

Access Restrictions:

Access to correspondence in Box 28 restricted until 2063.

Access Restrictions:

Access to correspondence in Box 48 restricted until 2056.

Access Restrictions:

Access to Box 59 restricted to permission of the organization.

ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY

Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (P-FLAG) was born when Jeanne Manford, a New York school teacher, expressed her outrage at her gay son's mistreatment by local police in a published letter to the New York Post in 1972. The public response to her statement, "I have a homosexual son, and I love him," was so great that she held the first support group meeting for parents of gay children in March 1973 at the Metropolitan Duane Methodist Church in Greenwich Village. By 1976, when the Los Angeles chapter was started by Adele Starr, numerous groups had formed around the country.

The first national meeting was held in 1979 to coincide with the first March on Washington for Gay Rights, and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays was officially founded in 1981 with its headquarters in Denver, Colorado and was incorporated in 1982. In 1989, it moved to Washington, D.C. In the 1990s, it added "families" to the organizational name. In 1997, there were fifteen regions, each headed by a regional director, over four hundred affiliate chapters, and 70,000 individual members worldwide.

P-FLAG's three-part mission includes support, education, and advocacy. Its peer group meetings help what P-FLAGers call "new" parents through their often negative reactions to and distress about the news that a child is gay, lesbian, or bisexual. P-FLAG also offers support to individuals whose spouses, parents, or other family members have "come out" to them. Parents and other family members also benefit from and provide educational resources which aid in the process of acceptance. Publications, fact sheets, readings lists, cassettes, conferences, seminars, and speakers bureaus form the backbone of the educational arm of P-FLAG's mission.

Advocacy often entails applying educational campaigns to points of political leverage including voting blocks and public bodies. For example, many P-FLAG chapters have become highly involved in supporting anti-discrimination initiatives and in combating anti-gay ballot initiatives. P-FLAG chapters also often march in local and national gay pride parades. On the national level, P-FLAG organized a multimedia public education program called "Project Open Mind." P-FLAG's national president Nancy McDonald joined other activists in a meeting with President Bill Clinton to urge him to support programs for gay youth and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act designed to ban anti-gay bias in the workplace. P-FLAG collaborates with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign to push a common agenda.

McDonald credits Executive Director Sandra Gillis with the surge of membership from 1993 to 1997. In this time, the number of affiliate chapters almost doubled.

Extent

54 cubic feet. (54 cubic feet)

Additional Description

Abstract

The Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (P-FLAG) records consist of documents pertaining to the operations of the organization, including administrative records, project files, planning documents, regional directors' files, budget information, the 1992 Strategic Plan, correspondence, board meeting notes, by-laws and articles of incorporation, and other papers. Subject files include material on HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS care, family support networks, and other organizations and services in the field of gay rights and AIDS support. Also included are audiocassettes from P-FLAG National Conventions (1982-1996), and two videos.

SERIES LIST

Series I. P-FLAG Administration Boxes 1, 2, 6, 17, 21, 23-27, 41-42, 49-53, 59, 63

Foundation of the organization (articles of incorporation, charters, revisions of by-laws, constitution and revisions, etc.)

Affiliates

Annual Reports

Board of Directors

Chapter Information

Finances and Fundraising

Regional Directors

Strategic Plan

State Councils

Directories

P-FLAG Organizational Grievance

Snapshot of Excellence Program

Series II. Correspondence Boxes 2, 3, 6, 28-29, 42, 48-49, 53, 56-57

Series III. General Subject Files Boxes 3, 7, 18, 29-36, 42-43, 49, 54-56, 63

Public Service Announcements Project

Straight Spouses Network/Task Force Information

Respect All Youth Project

Campaign for Military Service Project

Pledge Project

State Organizing

Series IV. AIDS Boxes 3, 4, 36, 43

Correspondence

Series V. Family AIDS Support Project Boxes 4, 5, 36-37, 55

Series VI. Publications Boxes 5, 7, 17, 22, 37-38, 43-46, 49, 55, 58, 64

P-FLAG Advertisements

Chapter Newsletters

Series VII. Project Open Mind Box 19, 38, 46, 49, 55, 57

POM Strategic Planning

POM Trainings On Site

Series VIII. Conferences Boxes 17, 20, 38-39, 46, 49

P-FLAG National Conventions

P-FLAG Regional Conferences

Series IX. Audiocassettes and Videocassettes Boxes 8-16

Series X. Media Boxes 39-40, 47, 60-63

Series XI. Photographs Boxes 69-70

RELATED MATERIAL

Publications removed from collection 7616 and cataloged as individual books and serials in the Human Sexuality Collection are listed at the end of this guide under Separated Material.

SEPARATED MATERIAL

Publications Removed From Collection 7616 - To Be Cataloged As Individual Books And Serials In The Human Sexuality Collection:

AIDS Services Directory, 1990, New York State Department of Social Services
AIDS Treatment News, Issue Numbers: 112, 115, 116, 119, 135, 137-139, 143-148, 150-158, 160, 172; Special Report: Essential HIV Consumer Reading; Edición Especial en Espñaol Octubre 1990; Treatment Issues: Volume 5, Number 6; Volume 6, Numbers 1, 3-7
Alternative Family Magazine, River Forest, IL. 1 issue.
And God Loves Each One
Between the Lines, Farmington, MI. 1 issue.
Bravo Bulletin, Columbus, OH. 1 issue.
Connecticut Resource Guide: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues in Education. 1997.
Empathy, Volume 2, Number 2
GLPGI Network, Newsletter of the Gay and Lesbian Parents Coalition International, Summer 1993
Helpline/Frontline, Volume One, Number One; Volume One, Number Two
Impact, Volume 18, September 24-October 7, 1993
Justice for All, Equality Illinois. 1 issue.
Little Black Book, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.
National Community AIDS Partnership Annual Reports: 1990-1991; 1991-1992
Federation of PFLAG Newsletter, 13 issues.
Our Daughters and Sons: Questions and Answers for Parents of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual People, P-FLAG, 1995
P-FLAGpole, 78 issues
The FLAGPOLE of P-FLAG of Metropolitan, Washington, February 1995
Read This Before Coming Out To Your Parents: A guide for you and your parents, P-FLAG, 1995
Stonewall News Northwest, Spokane, WA. 1 issue.
Supporting People With AIDS: The GMHC Model, Gay Men's Health Crisis
Surgeon General's Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Surgeon General's Report to the American Public on HIV Infection and AIDS(Novello, Koop)
The First Ten Years GMHC, 1990-1991 Annual Report
Why ask Why? Addressing the Research on Homosexuality and Biology, P-FLAG, 1995
Tips and Tactics, 45 issues.
The Truth about Jane (VHS). Hearst Entertainment, 2001.
Understanding AIDS: A Message From The Surgeon General
Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Violence in 1997, a report of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
Income Inflation: the myth of affluence among gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans, by M.V. Lee Badgett, Ph.D., a joint publication of the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies
Who Decides? A State-by-State Review of Abortion and Reproductive Rights, eighth edition, 1999, National Abortion Rights and Reproductive Rights Action League Foundation
SIECUS Report, vol. 25, no. 4, "Abstinence-only Education"
Your Metro Neighbors, Cincinnati, OH. 2 issues.

Physical Description

correspondence, general subject files, videocassettes, audiocassettes

General

Contact Information:: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 2B Carl A. Kroch Library Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524 rareref@cornell.edu http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
Compiled by:: Brenda J. Marston
Date completed:: September 1997
EAD encoding:: Mireille Lee, March 2000Andrea Hektor, July 2003Rima Turner, June 2007
Date modified:: Marcie Farwell, October 2018