That bright shiny new PFLAG Portland website you’re visiting reflects major changes in our world and in our chapter. You’ll find a vastly simplified website that is focused on giving you the information you need, quickly. We’re making it easier for you to connect to us, to register for our support circles and events, and to deepen your involvement with PFLAG. And since most folks visit us using their smartphone or other mobile device, we’ve reworked our mobile website as well.
One of the biggest changes you’ll find in our new site is that we’re now just PFLAG Portland – one chapter for the entire Portland Metropolitan area. Over the past few years, as Portland has grown, our members and subscribers live farther and farther away from our satellite chapters’ meeting locations, with the consequence that it’s harder and harder for people to get to our meeting sites.
When COVID-19 hit, it was unsafe for those meetings to be held at all – and it looks like large in-person events will remain unsafe for the foreseeable future. So in March 2020 we moved all of our events online. What we discovered was that we were able to serve a larger community online than in-person, and that satellite chapters no longer served their original purpose. So the PFLAG Portland Family of Chapters has once again become just PFLAG Portland – meeting you where you are via the miracle of the internet.
We’ve also streamlined our programs and projects to better utilize our strengths and especially to enable us to more effectively partner with the many other social justice organizations in the Portland area.
And finally, a word about our mission and goals. PFLAG was born to create community for LGBTQ+ people, families and friends. Peer-to-peer support was and is the cornerstone of our mission. But if support is our cornerstone, advocacy and education are the foundation of the just and compassionate community that we are working to create. Building the fabric of that community involves outreach and partnerships, and a PFLAG that perceives its mission as far broader than it may have in the past.
It’s a new day, an exciting opportunity for growth and realizing the Beloved Community in all its diversity. Join us on the journey.