Out Spotlight LXXIV

In honor of Mother's Day (here in the U.S.), today's Out Spotlight is Jeanne Manford. Through the love and acceptance of her son, a movement was born.

In 1972, Morty Manford was physically attacked at a gay rights protest demonstration in New York. Morty's parents, Jeanne and Jules Manford, saw the attack on the evening news and witnessed the police's failure to step in and help. Their outrage turned them into activists.

Jeanne Manford's next steps was to erase any doubt her son may have had about her loyalty, love and acceptance of him and who he was.

She tried to call The New York Times to expose the injustice, but says she was hung up on. Then, she wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Post. The letter was published. One sentence jumped out: "My son is a homosexual, and I love him."

The next day, she received a phone call from Morty.

"You can't believe it [the response]," he told her. "No mother has ever announced to the world her son is gay."

"I loved him," she said of her son, Morty Manford. "He was my son."

"Of course, I knew Morty was gay," Manford explained. "He didn't want to tell me. I told him that I loved him, and nothing else mattered. At first, there was a little tension there. He didn't believe I was that accepting. But I was."

Manford's son invited her to march with him in the Christopher Street Liberation Day parade in June 1972.

She agreed, accompanying him to the parade and carrying a sign to explain why she was there. The poster board read in large capital letters: PARENTS OF GAYS: UNITE IN SUPPORT FOR OUR CHILDREN.

Perhaps it was the first time a parent was seen to publicly support her gay child. Because so many gay and lesbian people ran up to Jeanne during the parade and begged her to talk to their parents, she decided to begin a support group. This first support group grew and branched out into other communities, forming a network of groups.

Her activism was not without risk. A 30-year veteran elementary school teacher,her principal warned me that there were complaints from parents," she said. "She told me to be discreet. I told her this was my private life." The principal retreated, opposition faded and Manford's life as an activist continued through her 1990 retirement from education.

That love and pride inspired Manford had about her son leg her to co-found the internationally-known support group Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) in 1972. In 1973, they held their first meeting at the Metropolitan Duane Methodist Church in Greenwich Village church. Approximately 20 people attend.

In 1976, Larry and Adele Starr launch the Los Angeles chapter - and apply for non-profit status. More than 35 people go to the Starrs’ home for the first meeting.

The groups had their first national meeting in Washington, D.C. in 1981. As a result of this meeting, the first PFLAG office was established in Los Angeles under Adele Starr, who served as the first president of PFLAG.

By 1988, there are 200 local chapters nationwide and its headquarter relocates to Washington DC. In 1993, to accommodate its growing national profile and ensure its support at the local level, the organization restructures and changes its name to Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG. PFLAG added bisexuals to its mission in 1993, and officially included transgendered people and their loved ones in its program of support, education and advocacy in 1998.

PFLAG has become international with more than 250,000 members and supporters included in 500 chapters worldwide.

Today, the sign Jeanne Manford carried supporting her son Morty is part of the Gay and Lesbian Collections of the New York Public Library archives.

"What can be a greater expression of a mother's love for her son than to stand up for that child in the face of such great adversity?" - about Jeanne Manford

PFLAG

Happy Mother's Day to those who are mothers,
and to all women who share their
love and compassion
with others.

Update:(4:15pm EST) New Prince of Persia Footage