# Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

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Criminality
Buggery Act 1533
Offences Against the Person Act 1828
Offences Against the Person Act 1861
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Sexual Offences Act 1967
Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980
Homosexual Offences Order 1982
Section 28
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
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Sexual Offences Act 2003
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Alan Turing law
Merchant Shipping (Homosexual Conduct) Act 2017
Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) (Scotland) Act 2018 :
Protection and recognition
Public Order Act 1986
Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999
Adoption and Children Act 2002
Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
Civil Partnership Act 2004
Gender Recognition Act 2004
Equality Act 2006
Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008
Equality Act 2010
Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013
Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014
Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc) Act 2019
Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 :
Litigation
Corbett v Corbett (1969)
X v United Kingdom (1978)
Dudgeon v United Kingdom (1981)
R v Brown (1993)
Sutherland v United Kingdom (1994)
Smith and Grady v United Kingdom (1999)
Goodwin & I v United Kingdom (2002)
HJ and HT v Home Secretary (2010)
National AIDS Trust v NHS Service Commissioning Board (2016)
Bell v Tavistock (2021)
AB v CD and others (2021) :
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Timeline 342 MSM activity made illegal 1533 Death penalty introduced for MSM activity 1543 Buggery Act extended to Wales 1828 Offences Against the Person Act 1828 1835 James Pratt and John Smith executed 1861 Death penalty for buggery abolished 1885 Labouchere Amendment introduced 1889 Cleveland Street scandal 1895 Oscar Wilde found guilty of gross indecency 1912 The Cave of the Golden Calf opens 1921 Plans to make lesbian activity illegal defeated 1936 Mark Weston transitions 1952 John Nott-Bower begins crackdown 1954 Pitt-Rivers, Montagu, Wildeblood imprisoned 1954 Alan Turing commits suicide 1957 Wolfenden report released 1967 MSM activity made legal (England & Wales) 1972 First British Gay Pride Rally 1976 Jeremy Thorpe resigns as Liberal leader 1981 MSM activity made legal (Scotland) 1981 First case of AIDS reported in the UK 1982 MSM activity made legal (NI) 1983 Gay men barred from donating blood 1984 Chris Smith elected as first openly gay MP 1987 Operation Spanner begins 1988 Section 28 comes into force 1989 Stonewall UK forms 1994 Age of consent for MSM becomes 18 1997 Angela Eagle becomes first openly lesbian MP 1998 Bolton 7 found guilty 1998 Lord Alli becomes first openly gay Lord 1999 Admiral Duncan bombing 2000 Gay men allowed in HM Armed Forces 2001 Age of consent equalised to 16 2001 MSM activity involving multiple men legal 2002 Same sex couples granted equal rights to adopt 2003 Section 28 repealed 2004 Civil partnerships introduced 2004 Gender Recognition Act 2004 2006 Discrimination made illegal 2008 Equalised access to IVF for lesbian couples 2008 Incitement to homophobic hatred made a crime 2009 Public apology to Alan Turing 2010 Equality Act 2010 2011 Gay men allowed to donate blood (1 yr deferral) 2013 Nikki Sinclaire becomes first openly trans MEP 2013 Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 2014 First same-sex marriages take place 2016 MSM activity not grounds for military discharge 2017 Turing law implemented 2017 Blood donation deferral 3 months (excl. NI) 2019 MPs legislate for gay marriage in NI 2020 Gay marriage legal across UK, incl. NI 2020 Blood donation deferral 3 months (incl. NI) 2021 Blood donation deferral equalised :
LGBTQ portal UK portal :
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Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (FFLAG) is a voluntary organisation and registered charity in the United Kingdom which offers support to parents and their lesbian/gay/bisexual and transgender children. They have a national telephone helpline (0300 688 0368 <changed in 2020>) as well as several parent support groups and are a support group recognised by the UK Government. FFLAG also works outside the UK with other LGBT family support organisations particularly in Europe.

## Formation
### Rose Robertson

The organisation has its roots in 1965 when Rose Robertson (1916 - 2011), a former World War II SOE agent set up Parents Enquiry, inspired by events she had seen whilst working with the resistance in occupied France. Rose was herself heterosexual, her maiden name being Laimbeer, Rose had married George Robertson in 1954, he died in 1984. Rose launched Britain's first helpline to assist, inform and support parents and their lesbian, gay and bisexual sons and daughters three years before the Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales in a period of severe Homophobia, when LGBT+ people regularly experienced prejudice, harassment and oppression. Rose used her own home and money to help young LGBT+ people in need.

#### Parents Enquiry

Rose Robertson was receiving over 100 phone calls and letters a week from highly distressed gay teenagers, many of whom had self harmed. Rose often mediated between parents mostly successfully, who had rejected their own sons and daughters due to sexuality. Despite being verbally abused, physically attacked, targeted with extreme homophobia and Right-wing extremists, arson attacks on her home, excrement through the letterbox, abusive phone calls and hate mail she did not give up and persevered until her death in helping young LGBT+ people.
Obituaries to Rose appeared in The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Pink Paper news papers and at the Peter Tatchell Foundation. The Manchester Parents Group had produced a video introduced by Sir Ian McKellen in 1990 in which Rose Robertson appeared, one of the last surviving VHS Video copies, although in worn condition was transferred by a volunteer to Mpeg video in 1999 for preservation.

### National Movement

The helpline that Rose created ran for three decades and Rose's work inspired parents in various parts of the country to set up their own groups and helplines. Among the first were those in Manchester, Leicester and Scotland. By 1993 it was felt that there was a need for a national organisation to act as an umbrella group to support and co-ordinate the local groups and to respond to the increasing request for information from the media, social services and other organisations and individuals.

#### FFLAG

'Friends and Families of Lesbians and Gays' (FFLAG) was the successor to Parents Enquiry set up in 1993, and became a registered charity in 2000 with aims were to support parents and their lesbian, gay and bisexual daughters and sons and to campaign for human and civil rights. FFLAG is a totally voluntary organisation; it has no statutory funding and is totally dependent on donations.
The equal rights legislation FFLAG has campaigned for include:
* The repeal of section 28
* Equalisation of the age of consent
* Lifting the ban on gays and lesbians in the armed forces
* Adoption rights for same sex couples
* Civil partnership
* Same sex marriage
In 2000 FFLAG joined with parent's organisations in Italy, France, Belgium, Germany and Spain to set up EuroFFLAG, now followed by the European Network of Parents of LGBTQI children.

#### FFLAG's vision

FFLAG's vision: is a world free from ignorance and prejudice about sexuality and gender identity in which LGBT+ people are valued and respected
Their mission:
To support families with LGBT+ members
* To be the national umbrella organisation for affiliated groups supporting families with LGBT+ members
* To support and develop a network of local family support groups
* To provide direct individual support where local family support groups are not involved
* To educate and advocate for a world in line with their vision
* To work with other organisations to achieve their vision
* To ensure that they have the necessary resources to achieve their mission

#### Support Resources

FFLAG's website provides information about helpful resources including their downloadable booklets. The booklet 'A Guide For Family & Friends' looks at issues and emotions that parents and families may face when their LGB loved one comes out. Another booklet 'How Do I Tell My Parents?' considers ways of telling parents as well as discussing the issues that often worry lesbian, gay and bisexual people when they want to talk to their family about their sexuality. The booklets, originally written by Rose Robertson, were rewritten by FFLAG Parents in 2012 and updated again in 2017. The booklets contain quotes and experiences from parents and LGB young people.
FFLAG has found that many of the enquiries currently received are from parents of trans youngsters. They have decided to extend their remit to include support for family and friends of trans people.
On 31 March 2018, coinciding with Trans Visibility Day, FFLAG launched its new booklet 'A Guide For Family & Friends - information for family and friends with a transgender member'.
There are plans for a second new booklet 'How Do I Tell My Parents? - I'm transgender' to be available later this year.

#### Trustees

President of the organisation is Jenny Broughton, Hugh Fell is Chair of Trustee's alongside fellow Trustee's Sorrel Atkinson, Janet Kent, Hilary Beynon and Sarah Furley.

#### Patrons

Long standing Patrons of the organisation are Baron Cashman of Limehouse, Angela Mason CBE, Sir Ian McKellen CH CBE, Baroness Massey of Darwen, Professor Ian Rivers, Deidre Sanders, Charlie Johnson and Peter Tatchell.