PFLAG Toronto Chapter

History

The origins of organized activities to support gay people in the process of "coming out," and to support the families and friends of those people in the process, are inevitably obscure. There are records of the parents of gays meeting in Toronto in the late 1970s, and forming a group calling itself P.O.G. (Parents Of Gays). Betty Fairchild, co-author of "Now That You Know" came from Denver to help the Toronto group in its initial stages. Rev. Brent Hawkes and the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto paid for the first telephone line. Another group, called F.F.L.A.G. (Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), was formed at about the same time.

In the early 1980s a Parents of Gays group was started in Mississauga, immediately to the west of Toronto. In 1985 a member of this organization was listed as a contact person for Parents of Lesbians and Gays in the February issue of Chatelaine magazine, which listed self help organizations in Canada. In April of the following year the first meeting of Parents of Lesbians and Gays was held in a private home; the group moved to a local church a year later, and continued to meet into the early 1990s.

A North Toronto Chapter of PFLAG began meeting in 1991, and the meetings continue today under the name of PFLAG Toronto.

Parallel developments occurred in the USA, and, as noted above, there was communication among the activists. In 1972 a young man was attacked at a gay rights protest demonstration in New York. His parents saw the attack on television and witnessed the failure of the police to intervene. The man's mother marched with her son in New York's Pride Day parade that year, and was persuaded to begin a support group, which held its first formal meeting in March 1973.

Following the 1979 National March for Gay and Lesbian Rights, representatives from many local groups met in Washington, D.C., and in 1981decided to launch a national organization. The first PFLAG office was established in Los Angeles. In 1990, PFLAG consolidated operations in Washington, D.C.

In 1995 PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) International was formed. There are presently over 400 Affiliates in the U.S., and chapters or contacts in 11 other countries around the world.