PFLAG Los Angeles Newsletter Archive

From the beginning of PFLAG Los Angeles in 1976, the founders knew that communication was a top priority. At the start, those communication tools were simple. In today’s twitter, text, and Instagram world those mimeographed fliers would be considered primitive. As the parents’ support movement grew all over the country, a National PFLAG organization was founded right here in Los Angeles and a regular newsletter was started in December of 1981.

Unfortunately, most of those early publications are lost. Why? Newsletters are ephemeral. They are read and discarded or just discarded. The very few remaining are in the files of the One National Gay and Lesbian Archives.

But in the year 2000, PFLAG Los Angeles was given a great gift when someone named Chris Haiss reached out to find support for at-risk LGBT high school students, most of them thrown out by their families, living in group homes, foster care, or on the streets. The goal: have PFLAG help their parents by offering support and understanding so that one day they may be reunited with their LGBT child. (Back then, California did not have any anti-discrimination laws protecting LGBT students.) Chris got the support from PFLAG and PFLAG got him to take over the job of interim newsletter editor. It is a position he has held for twenty years.

With no experience of writing a newsletter, he created an amazingly rich and interesting product. It included, of course, essential information about PFLAG Los Angeles—our mission, the dates of our support meetings and information about speakers, and our activities in the community. He also advertised events in the LGBTQ community — from performances of the West Coast Singers, to Outfest, the Pride Parade, the Models of Pride Conferences and many more.