What We Stand For

Public Accommodations

LGBTQ+ people have the right to access public spaces and facilities (e.g. restrooms, locker rooms, restaurants, malls, theaters, etc.) free from harassment by staff, customers, or any other person or entity representing or using those spaces or facilities. PFLAG works to ensure the protection of LGBTQ+ people from discrimination in public accommodations and for equal access to employment, housing, federally funded programs or services, and other settings, including jury service and businesses.

Approved by the PFLAG National Board of Directors; July 26, 2025

Safe Schools

PFLAG advocates for the right of all students to access no-cost publicly funded education that is safe, healthy, and respectful, free from violence, bullying, and discrimination. A school environment is considered safe when there are established, communicated, and enforced policies that respect and protect students, educators, counselors, staff, and administrators. Safe schools provide access to books and lessons that are honest, accurate, and inclusive and do not attempt to rewrite history or eliminate key historical figures and milestones. Safe schools also provide opportunities for all students to participate in extracurricular activities in accordance with their gender identity, including accessing public accommodations such as restrooms and locker rooms.

Approved by the PFLAG National Board of Directors; July 26, 2025

Voting Rights and Access

Registering to vote, voting without fear of discrimination or harassment, and keeping one’s vote private are all fundamental rights in a democracy. PFLAG advocates strengthening protections for all voters such that the voting process is accessible to all without undue constraints or challenges in terms of identification documents, access to polls, or other discriminatory policies or practices. PFLAG also encourages people to actively participate in the democratic process by making a plan to vote. This includes registering to vote, knowing registration status, learning all options for casting ballots, researching candidates, and getting informed about important election-related days and dates each year.

Approved by the PFLAG National Board of Directors; July 26, 2025

Data Collection 

Routine and systematic collection of data about and from LGBTQ+ people is needed in everything from healthcare access and school safety to the Census in order to create benchmarks and measure progress when it happens as well as to correct deficiencies when it does not. Data collection as a tool is needed across population issues, and attention to gathering information is key to standardizing research, assessing community needs, tracking discrimination to remove it, and establishing evidence-based policies to reduce disparities and deliver equitable treatment to all. That said, data must be subject to strict privacy controls so as to protect from the data being used to harass, harm, or prosecute those within the LGBTQ+ or other marginalized communities. PFLAG will work with federal, state and private research companies and organizations to broaden accurate data collection to include issues pertinent to the LGBTQ+ community.

Approved by the PFLAG National Board of Directors; July 26, 2025

Immigration Justice and Reform

PFLAG supports immigration reform that keeps immigrants, asylum seekers, Dreamers, and their families safe and united. PFLAG also supports immigration policies that ensure a timely, thorough, respectful, fair, and humane process for people who attempt to enter the United States from countries that criminalize their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. PFLAG supports maintaining a pathway to citizenship for immigrants, asylum seekers, Dreamers, and their families and opposes their mistreatment, including assault, wrongful detention, incorrect gender segregation, solitary confinement, or denial of medically necessary prescriptions, including gender-affirming hormone therapy and HIV prevention and treatment medications.

Approved by the PFLAG National Board of Directors; July 26, 2025

Censorship

PFLAG affirms the right to honest, accurate, inclusive, and informative education that upholds every person’s right to learn, grow, and thrive—especially youth. We support the right to learn about diverse and expansive topics, people, and histories, and strive to empower people to think critically, encouraging them to make informed decisions for themselves.

PFLAG opposes all forms of censorship—both overt and subtle—including the restriction, removal, or discouragement of materials or discussions related to LGBTQ+ identities, race, ethnicity, disabilities, or gender, and the intersections among these identities. We also support the right of educators to provide inclusive, fact-based instruction without fear of censorship or reprisal.

PFLAG is committed to advocating for inclusive curricula, resisting book bans, and partnering with communities to ensure affirming educational environments for all.

Approved by the PFLAG National Board of Directors; July 26, 2025

Identity Documents

PFLAG believes that the right to securing identity documents and records with correct names, images, and gender markers is essential for all Americans—including transgender, nonbinary, and intersex individuals—to have the equal rights and protections afforded by the U.S. Constitution. PFLAG supports granting and using identity documents and records that are consistent with how a person identifies. We oppose all efforts or barriers that prohibit people from attaining, retaining, using, or renewing any identity document to which they are to be recognized.

PFLAG will continue to advocate fiercely for people’s right to identity documents and records that reflect who they are to let people participate fully in society. We do this as part of efforts to minimize the risk of harassment, discrimination, or even violence that mismatching or incorrect documents can bring.

Approved by the PFLAG National Board of Directors; July 26, 2025

Marriage Equality

PFLAG believes that families and society benefit when all individuals are free to marry whom they love and are able to legalize their relationships through marriage. PFLAG supports freedom to marry, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, throughout the United States and the world. Marriage as a social institution confers rights and protections, both legal and practical. Among those rights are tax, inheritance and estate planning benefits; employment, disability and other public assistance; medical, death, family and housing benefits. The definition of marriage controls over 1,000 federal laws in which marital status is addressed.

PFLAG will continue working to uphold that the protected status that marriage confers remains in place as the law of the land.

Approved by the PFLAG National Board of Directors; July 26, 2025

Conversion Therapy

“Conversion therapy” refers to a dangerous, discredited non-therapeutic practice that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

These practices—whether carried out by licensed professionals, religious leaders, or others—have been recognized by the United Nations as violations of human rights.  Those who push or provide this “therapy” can take advantage of sometimes well-meaning but misinformed parents and families. Research shows that individuals who undergo conversion “therapy” face significantly increased risks of depression, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behavior.

PFLAG affirms that LGBTQ+ people of all ages thrive when supported and affirmed by their families and communities. PFLAG will continue working to ban this harmful practice at all levels, and to educate parents and families so they are not misled by those who promote it.

Approved by the PFLAG National Board of Directors; July 26, 2025

Medically Necessary, Gender-Affirming Care

Everyone deserves access to the healthcare they need, including gender-affirming care that supports their identity, expression, and well-being. This care is medically necessary for many transgender, intersex, nonbinary and gender-expansive people.

Medical decisions should be made between patients and their healthcare providers —or, in the case of minors, the young person in conjunction with their parents or guardians and their providers—not by legislators.

PFLAG will continue working to attain and protect the right of all people to access medically necessary gender-affirming care. When such care is covered by insurance—including Medicaid and Medicare—that coverage must be consistent, comprehensive, and free from discrimination.

Approved by the PFLAG National Board of Directors; July 26, 2025

Transgender Open Military Service and Honorable Discharge Status for Veterans 

PFLAG supports open military service for all people—including people who are transgender—who exhibit readiness for deployment. PFLAG advocates for a transgender-inclusive enlistment, retention, and promotion policy that allows all service members to serve and to be granted Honorable Discharge status when they have earned it through their committed service, without fear of discrimination.

PFLAG also calls for the completion of the Department of Defense’s process to evaluate and revert to Honorable Discharge any discharges that were other than honorable for reasons only of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression and to grant full veterans benefits to them and their families.

Approved by the PFLAG National Board of Directors; July 26, 2025

Reproductive Health

PFLAG National affirms that the right to a safe and legal abortion is the law of the land, established in Roe v. Wade. We support the right to privacy and to self-determination in reproductive healthcare for all people, including LGBTQ+ people and their families. PFLAG National also affirms that reproductive healthcare decisions are between the individual, their support system, and their medical provider.

Reproductive healthcare includes fair, equal, and affordable access to abortion, birth control, pre-natal care, and reproductive medical interventions, including assistive reproductive services for individuals or families.

(Adopted by the PFLAG National Board of Directors November 14, 2021.)

Gun Violence Prevention

PFLAG is dedicated to building, maintaining, and expanding safe communities for all people, including LGBTQ+ people and their families.

LGBTQ+ people are disproportionately affected by hate crimes. In the U.S., 17.9% of hate crimes in 2016 were attributed to anti-LGBTQ+ bias*. While gun violence poses a significant threat to LGBTQ+ people, both underreporting and a lack of data leaves a gap in statistical evidence.

PFLAG supports common-sense gun laws which reduce and prevent gun violence. PFLAG also supports more rigorous collection of data and reporting of evidence in cases of gun violence involving LGBTQ+ people.

(Adopted by the PFLAG National Board of Directors October 25, 2019.)

Anti-Transgender Violence and Discrimination

PFLAG was the first national LGBTQ+ organization to mandate the full inclusion of people who are transgender as part of its expressed mission statement, approved by the Board of Directors in 1998.

PFLAG recognizes that in the 20+ years since approving this inclusive mission, discrimination, violence, and harm against transgender and gender-expansive people has greatly increased, with violence against transgender people—in particular Black transgender women—growing to epidemic proportions. PFLAG also recognizes that transgender people of color experience a compounded negative impact from their intersectional identities, including poverty, homelessness, unemployment, and health disparities.

PFLAG commits to advocating with—and supporting—transgender and gender-expansive people; and to working to reduce and remove the root causes of this crisis of violence and injustice, including systemic racism, sexism, discrimination, and harassment. We are also committed to educating others and ourselves about gender identity and gender expression in order to meet unfounded fear with facts.

PFLAG will work to build communities that value transgender and gender-expansive people, and to reduce societal barriers that lead to harm, poverty and, too often, death. PFLAG will deploy its resources to listen to, engage, and bolster diverse transgender communities and the organizations that serve them, lifting up actions to increase opportunities for fair and just employment, housing, healthcare, and access to public services including law enforcement. PFLAG will also continue to educate law enforcement agencies and officers to reduce harm, and end the high rates of mistreatment, incarceration, denial of necessary medications, and physical and sexual assault in jails and prisons that transgender and gender-expansive people—especially Black transgender women—experience.

(Adopted by the PFLAG National Board of Directors on November 15, 2019.)

Hate Crimes

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people experience disproportionately high rates of violence, assault and murder based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Since the 2016 election, violence and hate crimes have been on the rise in the United States. Reports of violence and allegations of hate crimes have risen dramatically for immigrant, refugee, African-American, Jewish, Latinx, LGBTQ and Muslim communities.* At particular risk for violence are those who embody more than one, intersecting, marginalized identity, and among the LGBTQ population, highest risk and reports are experienced by transgender women of color and queer Muslims of color.

PFLAG is fiercely dedicated to our strategic priority of building, maintaining and expanding safe communities. We are committed to keeping all members of the LGBTQ community safe and to reduce rates of violence against LGBTQ people, and those that exist across the intersections of marginalized and at-risk communities. PFLAG strongly believes it is our moral obligation to continue to fight injustice and policies rooted in racism, homophobia, transphobia and xenophobia, and condemn hateful rhetoric, hate crimes, and hate threats against all people.

PFLAG supports and works to enact federal, state and local laws that are inclusive and that protect LGBTQ persons and other marginalized communities from hate crimes and strongly embraces the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2010, the first federal law to explicitly include LGBTQ people.

PFLAG works to create safe communities that can narrow the gap between residents and law enforcement; to build cultural humility; and to emphasize community education, prevention and assistance to prevent, address and report violence. PFLAG works to ensure that the criminal justice system delivers fair and swift justice for those who are the targets of hate crimes.

*Southern Poverty Law Center

(Adopted by the PFLAG National Board of Directors July 23, 2001. Revised April 1, 2012. Revised July 21, 2016. Revised March 18, 2017. )

HIV and STD Prevention

PFLAG believes self-acceptance, and family and community support are key protective factors when it comes to the health and well being of all people.*

PFLAG also believes in the value of education, including information on the prevention of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and STDs (sexually transmitted disease). PFLAG concurs with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)** regarding HIV/STD prevention. These guidelines recognize the need for medically accurate information to educate people about how to protect themselves and their partners against HIV and STDs.

With education comes knowledge, and with knowledge comes the ability to engage in sexual relationships in a manner that is healthy and safe, and in keeping with one’s right to self-determination.

PFLAG acknowledges that HIV and STDs are preventable infections that disproportionally affect segments of the LGBTQ community. Expanded prevention and treatment strategies are essential to curtailing the rise of new HIV and STD infections.

A responsible HIV/STD prevention motto is: “Educate, test, treat, and repeat.” Everyone needs complete and unbiased information about:

• Modes of transmission,
• Risk factors,
• Prevention methods,
• Where and how frequently to be tested, and
• Treatment options that are available.

PFLAG believes HIV/STD prevention education, testing, and treatment (e.g., pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP), should be affordable, readily accessible, and available through all healthcare providers.

PFLAG further affirms that healthcare providers who discriminate, based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, can negatively impact the health and well-being of persons seeking prevention, treatment, or care.

*Family Acceptance Project (familyproject.sfsu.edu)

**Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov)

(Adopted by the PFLAG National Board of Directors December 9, 2017.)

Intersex

PFLAG welcomes persons with intersex medical conditions (also known as Differences of Sex Development, DSD, or atypical, “non-standard” sex development) and their families as fully participating members. A variety of conditions that lead to atypical development of physical sex characteristics are collectively referred to as intersex conditions, according to the American Psychological Association, adding that these conditions can involve the external genitalia, internal reproductive organs, sex chromosomes or sex-related hormones. PFLAG members should be informed about and inclusive of the needs of persons with these conditions, as they are with any other medical condition.

PFLAG recognizes the need for informed consent when individuals with intersex medical conditions undergo medical treatment such as, but not limited to, genitoplasty and sterilization. PFLAG acknowledges that these treatments may be the result of societal pressures and are oftentimes, neither necessary nor urgent. PFLAG condemns the practice of genital mutilation on children and infants and encourages individuals to seek information about both the short- and long-term ramifications of such surgeries.

PFLAG supports efforts to end the secrecy and the medically unnecessary genital surgery experienced by some persons with intersex conditions. PFLAG welcomes the efforts of medical organizations, support groups, and others, working toward this end. PFLAG urges the entire health care community to establish and adopt a patient-centered treatment protocol under which patients and families are treated with the utmost sensitivity.

(Adopted by the PFLAG National Board of Directors September 27, 2002. Revised 2009. Revised July 22, 2012. Revised July 8, 2017.)

Workplace Equality

PFLAG supports equal employment practices and employee benefits for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people. PFLAG supports federal, state and local employment laws that protect persons in public and private workplaces from discrimination based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. If workplace benefits are provided to opposite-sex married couples, these benefits should apply to same-sex married couples.

Workplace benefits should include basic medical coverage, dependent care, retirement, and medically necessary care of LGBTQ individuals to protect all families’ financial and medical well-being. In 2015 and 2016, the EEOC ruled that gender identity and gender expression and sexual orientation, respectively, are protected in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 included in the definition of sex and sex stereotyping. In advance of passing comprehensive legal protections for LGBTQ employees and their families such as The Equality Act, PFLAG calls upon all employers to implement such measures proactively.

(Adopted  by the PFLAG National Board of Directors July 23, 2001. Revised May 22, 1994. Revised April 1, 2012. Revised March 18, 2017.)