Story Summary:
Jeanne Sobelson Manford was a Queens schoolteacher and a mother. In 1972, she learned that her son Morty had been beaten at a protest. She did not stay quiet. She wrote a letter to the newspaper. Then she marched beside Morty in the Pride march, carrying a handmade sign asking parents to support their gay children. Along the route, people ran up to her in tears. They asked her to talk to their own parents. The next year, she started a support group for parents. It grew into PFLAG, which now helps families across the country. In 2012, she was honored with the Presidential Citizens Medal. Jeanne Manford rests at Mount Hebron Cemetery.
