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And making sure no family has to do that should be our ultimate goal." "And it's not our job, but it's what we needed to do in the moment. "Interestingly enough, it was a state trooper that reached out to us," Bond says. The organization paid for the child's funeral anonymously. It's for the funeral of a 13-year-old trans kid who died by suicide a year and a half ago. He is haunted, however, by the people PFLAG does not reach.īond keeps a receipt in his wallet, he told NPR. But PFLAG is trying he says, with bilingual literature and developing spaces where people with similar backgrounds and cultural competencies can support each other online. Still, PFLAG's executive director, Brian Bond, says his organization has a long way to go. San Gabriel Valley's Asian Pacific Islander chapter of PFLAG marches in support of LGBTQ friends and family at a recent Pride parade. They've moved to a more affirming church and Green has just accepted a position on PFLAG's Charlotte board. She's changed her nursing career to focus on helping LGBTQ youth and she and her husband have supported other Caribbean families adjusting to LGBTQ kids. "Going to PFLAG and seeing the love, it helped me dismantle some of the things I believed."įive years later, Green proudly marches in Pride parades. "Devin was an excellent teacher and I was a very good student," she says.Īnd when the head of the local PFLAG chapter invited her out for coffee, she went. But Green was the opposite of a terrible parent. "It was difficult for me because when I got there, I met families who were more accepting of their children and so I felt like a terrible parent," she says.
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"There were actually laws on the books in Jamaica that you could go to jail if you were a member of the LGBTQ community."Īfter Devin Green persuaded his mom to go to therapy, she was talked into attending a PFLAG meeting. "There were songs that glorified killing of LGBTQ members," she recalls. After all, says Claudette Green, it started for her at home in Jamaica, where she grew up hearing homophobic messages in church, on the news and in popular music. Now, she is open and candid about her family's journey. When he came out in ninth grade, Green's mom was less than thrilled. Green's family attended a Southern Baptist church that taught a literal interpretation of the Bible. "Being Jamaican and having a relatively conservative upbringing, I just didn't know what to expect." "It was very nerve-racking," the 19-year-old says of telling his parents he was trans. But it was not easy for Devin Green, a child of immigrants who grew up in Charlotte, N.C. These days, coming out has become relatively painless for many kids from families like theirs. PFLAG was shaped by people like the Holladays for others like themselves – a largely white demographic who desperately needed support in the days before Ellen DeGeneres and Anderson Cooper helped make the very idea of LGBTQ families mainstream. This year, they were grand marshals of Norman's Pride parade.
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However, they read about PFLAG in the syndicated advice column Dear Abby and that inspired them to co-found a local chapter. They went to the public library to educate themselves but found nothing of use. Holladay and her husband felt lost and isolated.
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Her Southern Baptist church in Norman, Okla. "I think my choir director at church probably was," she says dryly. She remembers how in the early 1980s when her son came out to her, she did not know any gay people. The culture has changed in immeasurable ways, says PFLAG board member Kay Holladay. Jeanne Manford marching in support of her son 50 years ago, at the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade in 1972.