STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

NOW THAT YOU KNOW
 

We are committed to help other parents, families, and friends learn what we have learned. We hope to change attitudes and create an environment of understanding so that our gay and lesbian children can live with dignity and respect and total acceptance of who they are. It is our sincere invitation to share our knowledge, to be free from fear, and to reach out, search, and discover more about being human. We do this with sensitivity, trust, and an environment of love.

To Help Change Attitudes

While society surrounds us with misinformation about homosexuality, we must not allow these distorted attitudes to go unchallenged or continue to interfere with the happiness of families and their relationships with gay family members. We want to help society recognize that our loved ones as homosexual people are normal, healthy, productive, and loving beings.

To Help Parents & Families

We know how they feel because we felt the same way. We want to help our gay family members on the journey toward acceptance, respect and pride.

To Educate

We challenge the problem of silence. In America today there are millions of parents with gay daughters and sons who are victims of social, political and economic oppression. Gay people in many communities are still obstructed by prejudice in their pursuit of happiness and in striving to live their lives with openness and dignity. Homosexuals are not the only victims of this oppression; it also touches their friends and families. We, as Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gay Men feel that the time is right to join together to appeal to the public conscience in order to achieve equal opportunities for our daughters and sons. We challenge society's status quo attitude. We have a commitment to actively help our gay daughters, sons, and friends by working for the same basic human rights, liberties, and opportunities for them that are enjoyed by our straight children and friends. As friends and parents of gay people, new windows of understanding have been opened to us which have enriched our lives. We want to bring this understanding to the community.

WE HAVE LEARNED ….

Our lesbian and gay loved ones come from all walks of life, including "model" families, single parents, dominant or submissive mothers, weak or strong fathers -- there is no pattern!

WE HAVE LEARNED …

To be free from the burden of guilt about our loved one's natural, normal sexual orientation. No one knows what causes homosexuality, just as no one knows what causes heterosexuality. It's nobody's fault!

WE HAVE LEARNED …

Our homosexual loved ones may be an only child, the youngest or oldest, or one (or both) of twins. In some families one child is homosexual; in others, two or more.

IT JUST IS!