December 13, 2010 | Sex & Society

Founding PFLAG president passes away

Adele Starr, one of the first leaders of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) died on Friday. She was 90 years old.

Starr helped establish a support group for parents of queer children back in 1976 when homosexuality was still considered a mental illness by many. Her son had come out, and she was forced to address her own prejudices.

Starr later met with PFLAG founder Jeanne Manford and her husband Jules, and it wasn't long before she was hosting PFLAG meetings in her own home in Los Angeles. Later she worked with leaders from other chapters, and helped push the organization onto the national stage. She would become the first president of the national PFLAG organization.

She is also credited with helping keep PFLAG motivated during the AIDS crisis in the 80s, when homosexuality was once again demonized.

"In that time, a lot of us lost hope," said longtime friend and collaborator Terry DeCrescenzo. "Not Adele. And PFLAG became enormously important because it was rock solid.... She was a good woman. She'll be missed." 

“Adele Starr was one of the pioneers of PFLAG. It is because of her commitment to organizing the many people who were working for the common goal of equality for all into the organization that we now know as PFLAG that we have gained the strength, prominence, and ability to become the voice of parents and allies united for equality,” Jody M. Huckaby, PFLAG National’s executive director, said in a statement Friday.

Adele Starr dies at 90; unflagging gay-rights activist [LA Times]