I’ve been hearing rumors for a while that the Twin Cities chapter of PFLAG is closing. Unfortunately this news has been confirmed and the below email was sent out:
PFLAG Twin Cities wishes to inform you of our closing, effective December 31, 2019. We have mixed feelings about this announcement. While we are sad to inform you of our closing, we also feel joy in the accomplishments and the impact we have had on our community.
Please join us in one last PFLAG Twin Cities gathering, to see old friends, relive our rich history of struggles, defeats, and victories, and to say goodbye.
Tuesday, December 17, 2019. 6:00 – 9:00 pm.
Park Tavern, 3401 Louisiana Ave S, St Louis Park, MN 55426
light hors d’oeuvres and cash bar provided
PFLAG Twin Cities has been a part of the LGBTQ+ community for nearly 40 years and while our membership and directors may have changed many times over, our core mission has not. We have never wavered in our fight to make Minnesota, and the world, a better place for LGBTQ+ youth and adults. The number of families who were healed and the individual lives that were saved through our support groups cannot be known, but the social changes through our education and activism can. PFLAG Twin Cities has helped make equal rights for LGBTQ+ people a reality; we helped bring legislation for safer schools for LGBTQ+ youth into law; and we helped bring Minnesota the honor of being the first state to vote down a “traditional marriage only” amendment and to make marriage equality a reality.
The rights of the LGBTQ+ community have come a long way and while we acknowledge that there is still much work to be done, especially in the area of Transgender rights, we seem to have achieved many of our goals. Mirroring a shift in public interest and support, our donations from the general public have been in steady decline over the past 10 years. With this decline in support, along with the loss of our last corporate sponsor, we find that we can no longer be a viable organization and believe it is the right time to close.
Our founders looked forward to achieving their dreams of LGBTQ+ equality through working to make social change happen and to bring about the public acceptance we now enjoy. They had looked forward to our closing, to a time when PFLAG Twin Cities would no longer be needed, with this announcement we are making that dream a reality.
Sincerely,
Beth Johnson
Claire Todd
Shawn Jarvis
PFLAG Board of Directors
PFLAG will continue to exist and there are still chapters all over the country. I’m sad to see the Twin Cities chapter close, but there are support groups and resources all around Minnesota.
Love, Hannah
Hannah McKnight 
This is sad news indeed, but at least take heart that they indicate their mission is accomplished… and that there are other support organizations ready to take up the torch.
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