Subject: PFLAG President to Meet With Clinton Today
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 10:42:15 -0500

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 22, 1997

CONTACT:
Ryan LaLonde
[email-masked]
202/638-4200

PFLAG PRESIDENT TO MEET WITH CLINTON TODAY

        Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)
President Nancy McDonald hopes to bring the views of nearly 70,000 PFLAG
households from across the country to President Bill Clinton during a White
House meeting today, July 22.
        "We are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles,
cousins, neighbors and friends who want to live in a society where everyone
is valued," said McDonald, a community educator who lives in Tulsa,
Oklahoma.
        "We are seeking to create 'safe space' for everyone, and especially
in our schools and communities. I hope that Clinton and his Administration
will join us in this work," she said.
        PFLAG President McDonald is scheduled to meet with Clinton in
today's private meeting alongside a dozen gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender community activists.
        PFLAG, a national family organization currently serving more than
400 communities, has been headed by McDonald since October 1996. She
coordinated the group's public educational program, Project Open Mind,
during its initial launch in Tulsa, and is the founder of the city's PFLAG
chapter.
        McDonald is an education consultant, having previously worked in
the Tulsa Public Schools developing and coordinating the School Volunteer
Program and Partnerships in Education with Business and Industry. Her many
honors include being named Tulsa Woman of the Year and Administrator of the
Year by Tulsa Classroom Teachers.
        She and her husband of 35 years have five children and five
grandchildren.
        Leaders of PFLAG, which was created almost 20 years ago out of a
mother's pain and anger as she watched her gay son be beaten on a
television newscast, pledged this past spring at the historic President's
Summit for America's Future to provide "safe spaces" for 10,000 more gay,
lesbian and bisexual youth and their families by the year 2002. This is in
light of the fact that every day 13 Americans between the ages of 15 and 24
commit suicide, and it is estimated that perhaps 30% of these young people
are gay or lesbian.

McDonald is available for interviews today and tomorrow after the White
House meeting with Clinton.

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) promotes the
health and well-being of gay, lesbian and bisexual persons, their families
and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education,
to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination
and to secure civil rights.   PFLAG provides an opportunity for dialogue
about sexual orientation, and acts to create a society that is healthy and
respectful of human diversity.   Serving more than 69,000 members, PFLAG
affiliates are located in more than 400 communities across the United
States, and in 11 other countries.