Speakers Bureau & Info Tables

PFLAG Speakers Guide

Mission Statement

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, their families and friends. This is done through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights. Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays provides opportunity for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity and acts to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity.

Our primary goal at meetings is to support LGBT Parents and friends and ask you to please follow our agenda timeline.

Meeting Agenda

o 7:00pm Welcome to PFLAG
o 7:05pm Announcements and items of interest
o 7:15pm Speaker (Please limit to 15 minutes)
o 7:30pm Speaker Q&A & Wrap Up
o 7:45pm Support Group
o 9:00pm Meeting End

Attendees

New members in particular need time to become familiar and process LGBT information.

o They are seeking support at a confusing time
o Do not know the LGBT lingo
o Are unfamiliar with the community
o Can be sensitive to perceived or real dangers
o Are often vulnerable
o Are sometimes fearful
o Can be easily shocked or intimidated

We ask

o That you be aware of to this state of mind
o Limit topics around perceived danger (HIV, violence, victimization) to high level overviews
o Monitor your tone of voice (sometimes speakers can become animated or aggressive unintentionally)

Please provide

o Tell us about your group, resource or focus
o Your message and reason for speaking to the group
o Provide mini bio
o Brief 1 page or hands outs if available with resources, web sites or phone numbers.
o Please ask about our recent attendance to limit printed materials.

Speakers Guide in Word format