Our Founder
Learn about PFLAG Los Angeles Chapter’s Founder, Adele Starr
PFLAG Los Angeles was founded by a group of parents and LGBTQ persons led by an unlikely woman.
From the outside, she looked like an ordinary Jewish mother and housewife.
Like Jeanne Manford*, her passion, courage, and zeal for justice were ignited by her love for her child.
*Co-founder of PFLAG
The story began in 1968
when Adele and Larry Starr learned that their 18-year-old son Phillip was gay after he ran away from home. The family reunited, and the Starrs determined to do whatever they could to learn about homosexuality and help Phillip.
Their search for answers led them to Jeanne Manford, who had held the first support group for parents of gay children in New York City in 1973. With Manford's encouragement, Adele held the first support meeting in Starr's home on March 8, 1976. The group came to be known as PFLAG Los Angeles and has been meeting ever since.
Adele recognized that support was not enough to help Phillip and the other families who came flocking to the meetings. She began speaking at churches and community groups to correct misinformation about LGBTQ persons. She was becoming an LGBTQ advocate.
The TV show Good Morning America hosts Adele and Larry Starr and their gay son Phillip for the National Gay Task Force (NGTF) Week of Dialog with American Families in the 1970s.
NGTF is now known as the National LGBTQ Task Force.
Galvanized by the roll back of gay rights legislation in Florida—the infamous Anita Bryant campaign–
Adele and her small group of parents marched in the 1977 Gay Pride Parade for the first time and received the Grand Marshall’s award. Accepting it she said, “This is only the beginning of our fight to save our children from bigotry.”
Adele Starr receiving an award in 1977 from the Los Angeles City Council for PFLAG Los Angeles and our work on behalf of the LGBTQ community.
The advocacy work of PFLAG Los Angeles advanced in 1978.
Proposition 6, the Briggs Initiative, threatened the teaching jobs of gays, lesbians, and those who supported them. In response, a group of 30 PFLAG Los Angeles parents wrote "About Our Children" -- the first PFLAG publication, to counter a fear-mongering campaign with facts. They printed 175,000 copies and distributed 150,000 to California voters helping to defeat the measure.
Starr's advocacy work became increasingly important. In 1979 Adele testified before the Los Angeles City Council in support of the Los Angeles Gay Rights Ordinance, which outlawed discrimination in housing and employment. Against all odds, it passed.
At the historic LGBT March on Washington in 1979, marking the 10th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and the birth of the gay rights movement, Adele was one of only two parents to speak from the main podium at the Washington Monument. She wowed the crowd declaring:
"Together, we parents and our children challenge the attitudes that destroy, attitudes that have caused violence, bloodshed and suicide. . .We are silent no longer!!!"
Committed parents from across the nation convened at the home of Adele and Larry Starr in 1979 at an organizing meeting for Parents FLAG. Jeanne Manford is seated third from the right, Adele Starr is next to her seated fourth from the right.
PFLAG National was founded in 1981.
Committed leaders of other similar parent groups at the March began to contemplate the advantages of having a national federation, giving them a bigger platform for advocacy and a voice in the national political debate about LGBT issues. In 1981, a meeting at the Starr home of representatives from 20 parent groups created articles of incorporation, by-laws, a five-member board, and a president for the new organization, now officially called the Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays -- Parents FLAG.
That president was Adele Starr.
As a spokesperson for Parents FLAG, Adele attended the 1981 White House Conference on Families, where she made sure participants knew that many families included loved and cherished gay members. She became a regular at subsequent meetings of the White House Conference on Youth and served on its advisory board by appointment of Mayor Tom Bradley.
In her campaign to end ignorance about issues of sexual orientation, Adele also involved the national media.
Placing a cold call to Dear Abby, Adele introduced her to Parents FLAG as a resource for families dealing with homosexuality. Abby promoted the organization in her column, and 7,500 letters arrived on Adele's doorstep. She and her cadre of faithful parents and LGBTQ persons answered every one personally.
In 1993, the Parents FLAG restructured, taking the name PFLAG, Inc. Adele remained president of PFLAG Los Angeles until well into her senior years. Even after her health confined her to her home, she answered the organization's helpline and continued to get regular reports from chapter officers until she died in 2010.
Adele was president of PFLAG Los Angeles until 1994.
Leading with love, PFLAG Los Angeles continues to be a passionate advocate for LGBTQ persons, and a safe, welcoming place for them, their families, friends, and allies.