06/17/2026
Read more about the founder of PFLAG National
"Would you talk to my mother?" The young people who kept rushing out of the crowd to throw their arms around her, some of them in tears, asked her again and again. It was June 1972, and Jeanne Manford -- a soft-spoken schoolteacher from Queens -- was marching in New York City's gay pride parade beside her son, carrying a sign she had made by hand: "Parents of G**s: Unite in Support for Our Children." It had not occurred to her that a mother publicly declaring her love for her gay son could be that rare -- and that desperately needed.
Two months earlier, she had said it in print. Her son Morty, a twenty-one-year-old gay rights activist, had been handing out flyers at a political dinner -- protesting the press's treatment of gay people -- when a union official threw him down an escalator and kicked and stomped him while police stood by and did nothing. Jeanne and her husband, Jules, watched the footage on the evening news. Most parents in 1972 might have grieved in private. Jeanne sat down and wrote a letter to the New York Post.
"I have a homosexual son, and I love him," it read.
It is hard, now, to grasp how unthinkable those ten words were in 1972. Homosexuality was still classified as a mental illness. Gay men and women routinely lost jobs, homes, and families simply for being who they were, and a child who came out was often disowned, treated as dead. Almost no parent in America had ever stood up in public to say otherwise. "I didn't think anything of it," Manford said later, "but I guess it was the first time a mother ever sat down and very publicly said, 'Yes, I have a homosexual son.'"
Manford's letter denouncing this violence and the police's failure to intervene generated a huge response in the gay community. Two months later, as pictured here, she walked alongside Morty in a gay pride march. She later recalled all the "young people were hugging me, kissing me, screaming, asking if I would talk to their parents... [as] few of them were out to their parents for fear of rejection."
Moved by this overwhelming response, Manford and her husband Jules decided to start an organization for parents of g**s and le****ns to act as "a bridge between the gay community and the heterosexual community." In 1973, the Manfords held the first meeting of their new group, Parents of G**s, at the Metropolitan Community Church in Manhattan with 20 people in attendance.
Manford became a prominent national spokesperson for the cause and helped encourage the development of similar groups around the country. By 1982, 20 of these groups united to form a national organization, Parents, Families and Friends of Le****ns and G**s, or PFLAG. Today, PFLAG has over 550,000 members and supporters and more than 360 chapters across the US, and has inspired the formation of PFLAG groups in numerous other countries ranging from Australia to Vietnam.
In speaking about her impact, former PFLAG National Executive Director Jody Huckaby commended Manford for showing "the power of one person and their willingness to stand up."
Morty Manford went on to become a lawyer and an assistant attorney general of New York. He died of AIDS in 1992. His mother kept up the work after his death, marching and speaking for other people's children for the rest of her life. In 1991 she served as grand marshal of the New York City Pride March; after her death, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal, and praised her story as one "of hope stronger than hate, of love more powerful than any insult or injury."
Jeanne Manford died in 2013, at ninety-two. She had never set out to lead a movement. She had only refused, loudly and in public, to be ashamed of her son. As the priest and author James Martin wrote after her death: "No matter what religion you are, no matter what political party you favor, I hope that you say a prayer for Mrs. Manford. For she loved prophetically."
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To introduce children to her inspiring story, there is an uplifting picture book "The Mother of a Movement: Jeanne Manford - Ally, Activist, and Founder of PFLAG" for ages 5 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/mother-of-a-movement
For books for children, teens, and their parents that promote acceptance and understanding of LGBTQ people, visit our blog post "True Colors: Mighty Girl Books for Pride Month" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12258
For a helpful resources for parents of LGTBQ kids, we recommend "This Is A Book For Parents of Gay Kids" at https://www.amightygirl.com/parents-of-gay-kids
To inspire children and teens with more true stories of girls and women who fought for change throughout history, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364
To learn more about PFLAG National, visit https://pflag.org/
