PFLAG is growing in Mass.

As part of its strategic plan for 2008, Greater Boston PFLAG is looking to increase the number of local PFLAG chapters from six to 12. With chapters getting off the ground in Dorchester, Fall River and Essex along with interest in starting chapters in Mendon and Groton, it looks as though the organization is well on the way to achieving its goal.

The Fall River chapter, which was formed with the help of a gay/straight alliance advisor from a city high school, will make its debut on March 5. Closer to home, the Dorchester PFLAG chapter will hold its first meeting on March 6 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. at the Codman Square Health Center.

The meeting was spearheaded by Dorchester resident Lucretia Godfrey, an African American woman who has a lesbian daughter, in conjunction with Greater Boston PFLAG, BAGLY's Alicia Greene, diversity consultant Al Toney and David Wilson, the African American board chair of MassEquality who has made diversifying the LGBT movement in Massachusetts a top priority. The advocates hope the Dorchester group will be a resource for communities of color.

"Lucretia and David and Al Toney and PFLAG are trying to reach out to communities of color and let them know that this exists and if it's something they would get value from they can make it whatever they want it to be," said Greater Boston PFLAG executive director Pam Garramone. The March 6 meeting in Dorchester will be followed up with a March 20 meeting in which the documentary film Anyone and Everyone will be screened. The film, by Susan Polis Schutz, profiles families from an array of cultural and religious backgrounds who have dealt with the coming out of a family member.

The new chapters, as well as the tentative chapters in Groton and Mendon, were all initiated by residents of those communities who saw a need and then reached out to Greater Boston PFLAG for help, said Garramone. "They want to be proactive and create something where people can meet and get support and educate themselves," she said. "And then as a consequence they'll end up educating other people."
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n Dorchester, for instance, Garramone said that Godfrey approached Greater Boston PFLAG about a year ago wanting to start a chapter in her community. "She came to us, she's a very supporting mom and she's on our board now," said Garramone. "She's gone to the speaker trainings, she's just getting really involved now. This is going to be the culmination of a lot of work on March 6." (Godfrey could not be reached by press time.)

Greater Boston PFLAG Board President Stan Griffith has been in on the ground floor of planning the Groton chapter, which he said is in the very early planning stages. He is optimistic overall about the Greater Boston PFLAG's growth spurt, but not necessarily surprised by it. "We find that there's still a tremendous need for education and support for families who discover they have a gay relative," said Griffith. "They either need more information or they're having difficulty with it [and] we're increasingly finding more parents dealing with transgender kids, and so there really is a need for more chapters still."