Writing Resources
Most resources can be found at www.pflagbrisbane.org.au.
PFLAG became quite well known for its resources, which meant stepping into an area we hadn’t ventured before. I talked to people about their concerns, what should be done and what people wanted to know. Then I researched, spoke more to people, and got busy writing.
I always write in what I call “simple speak”. My logic is always that I want anyone to be able to understand what I have written. However, if this isn’t enough for some, that’s fine; they will know how to find academically written papers on their topic.
The first resource was just a simple brochure. Then I wrote ‘Sexuality is not a Choice’, which became and remains the most popular of all our resources. This booklet explains parents’ emotions and how they as parents can be supportive of their child. Then I wrote ‘Because I love you, I want you to know’, which provides tips to young people considering coming out to family. Later I wrote and published an information pack ‘Addressing Homophobia in the Workplace’. For this campaign, I had 5,000 packs printed and the Qld Council of Unions distributed every last one.
In collaboration with Two Spirits at QUAC, an Indigenous pack was developed to support the families of Indigenous youth coming out, which was very important because the families had similar issues, sometimes with stronger reactions. So, it was necessary to ensure all families had access to resources.
I also wrote and published a booklet ‘How to Become an Equal Rights Ally’, This was extremely popular in stalls and among high school youth, where social justice groups were the norm.
In 2006, I created an information pack called ‘Longreach for Outreach’ for regional and rural families and various organisations. Parents did several working bees to ensure the project succeeded. Forty-five thousand pieces of information were packed into 5,000 folders and delivered to Queensland Police stations, school-based health nurses, medical centres across Queensland and to every PFLAG group in Australia. The pack was officially launched on the 29th of November.
Farmer David Graham, a contestant in Big Brother, donated $20,000 to PFLAG when he won Australia’s Brainiest Housemate. David did this because we supported his family when he first came out, and this money went towards the $32,000 cost of the Longreach Project
After a few years we had people from country and regional areas asking what they could do to help. So, we began to develop regional contacts. Sometimes their input worked, sometimes not, which wasn’t the person’s fault.
Packing Bee with 43kg of Letters
Of course, it was a challenge in the beginning. How would we get the resources packed, prepared for mail or boxed and made ready to send by courier? I was lucky; I never had a problem getting volunteers. Sometimes, we used the meeting room at QUAC and other times we used a room at my home. Lunch and chocolates were always provided, and I made sure it was a fun day.
Sometimes we did a weekday, and we had retirees and several women. Other times the weekend, and the packers were generally younger, and we had more volunteers.
The largest packing bee we did was Longreach for Outreach. It took four days, with about 12 people working from 9.30 am to 4 pm daily. Five thousand folders needed to be packed and then placed into packing boxes. I had so many packing boxes that we took over the QUAC car park for the week. Then, they all had to be addressed and couriered to places across Australia.
The Longreach for Outreach pack consisted of several booklets. One was a general booklet for parents everywhere, another for rural parents, one for the young person coming out, another for the nurse or counsellor, a brochure about PFLAG, a letter, a rainbow sticker and a poster. In total we had 45,000 pieces to put into the 5000 folders, it was a huge task.
One day, I got an unexpected call from the Director General of Education, who congratulated me on the pack. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I thought she would tell me I was in trouble because I hadn’t asked permission. Realistically, how often does one get a call from such heights to say “congratulations”?
The smallest packing bee was probably a campaign we did which involved sending letters to 700 priests and ministers of religion, addressing homophobia and discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community. That campaign involved printing address stickers, folding the letters and putting the letters into the envelope. It wasn’t huge, but it was most definitely time-consuming.
Another small but time-consuming campaign was taking 43kg of letters to Canberra to fight for marriage equality. This involved having envelopes for every MP and Senator and putting the letters into the correct envelopes. I jokingly said that if the plane had crashed, it would have been my fault because of the extra weight.
This campaign was one of the many about marriage equality. Abbott was well-known for giving people the impression he would do something if we did such and such. Then, when we did as he suggested, nothing ever happened.
Mail-Outs
In 2003, we began to do regular mail-outs of educational resources. The first ever was to Brisbane libraries. Our logic was people went to libraries for information; some provided booklets and posters for them to hang, which also provided publicity for PFLAG.
This was still when many older adults were not computer literate, so booklets and brochures containing information were still necessary.
The largest was Longreach for Outreach, which was national. Several packs went to every PFLAG group in the country, every school-based health nurse and police station in Queensland, and rural and regional medical clinics and community centres. Schools and some psychologists. Additionally, organisations like the Royal Flying Doctor Service called and asked for our resources.
