Dear Chapter Leader, As chapter leaders, you know better than anyone that more and more parents of transgender and gender-nonconforming kids are coming to PFLAG for support and education. As those numbers grow—and as the times become even harder and more tumultuous—access to support has become even more critical. So when our friends at Gender Spectrum, an organization founded in 2006 to provide support for families and educators interacting with gender-expansive children and teens, reached out to us after announcing they might need to shut their doors and end their support meetings due to lack of resources, we immediately answered the call. Gender Spectrum’s mission to create a gender-inclusive world for youth by helping the people and institutions around them increase their understanding of gender is truly aligned with PFLAG’s mission to create a caring, just, and affirming world for LGBTQ+ people and those who love them. Therefore we are excited to announce the launch of the newest addition to our PFLAG Connects: Communities (PCC) program: the PFLAG Connects: Gender Spectrum Community. PCC provides safe, virtual, moderated spaces where people with shared experiences can connect each month to gain support, ask questions, and learn from others—and that’s exactly what this new community will do. To start, we are launching a parent group, the PFLAG Connects: Gender Spectrum Parent Community, which will meet for 90 minutes on the third Monday of each month, at 8pm ET/5pm PT. Our first meeting will be held on Monday, May 20th. This is an opportunity to bring new people to the PFLAG family, and to connect them directly, whenever possible, with the PFLAG Chapter Network for in-person support. We know that many of our chapters have gender-focused support meetings—just a few of them are listed on our website, which is a central hub for folks to find local support. If your chapter has a gender-focused support meeting, we want to make sure we know about it. For the PFLAG Connects: Gender Spectrum Parent Community meeting, anyone who is a parent or caregiver of a young person who is gender diverse is welcome. The only requirement is to register in advance so that we can provide an even higher level of safety and support to attendees. Please register today. Have questions? Please reach out to Angelina Leon, Partnerships and Communities Senior Manager, at aleon@pflag.org. We are proud of this new level of partnership with our friends at Gender Spectrum, and excited to offer not only this new virtual space, but to support chapters by creating this new pipeline to in-person support at your chapter meetings. Thank you for all that you do, Jamie Curtis (she/her)
Director of Chapter Engagement | 
