The April 17 issue of The New Yorker had an article about Jeanne Manford, the founder of PFLAG, friends and Parents of Lesbians and Gays. She started in 1972 at a Gay Pride March in New York, in support of her then-21 year old son Morty, who died from complications of AIDS in 1992, at age 41. I wrote a letter to the New Yorker, which Joe signed also, after making some grammatical corrections. Here's the letter:
"We were moved by Kathryn Schulz' beautiful tribute to Jeanne Manford, the founder of PFLAG. We both marched in the 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay RIghts, but we didn't meet until 2005. By that time, we had dealt with our parents' discomfort, cycled through jobs where we were not respected, and survived the worst of the AIDS crisis.
"Schulz reminded us of the sorrow we carry with us of the loss of friends to AIDS. We celebrate Jeanne Manford and others who stood up for us and our community, and we thank Kathryn Schulz for reminding us that we have survived and thrived. We kvell that Jeanne Manford was Jewish, and we bless her memory.
"Joe is now completing his eleventh year as the rabbi of Tree of Life Congregation in Morgantown, West Virginia. Barry was elected to Morgantown's City Council in 2017 and 2019, and was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Congress in West Virginia's Second Congressional District in 2022. We legally married in California in 2008.
"Thank you for reminding us how far we've come."
The New Yorker didn't print our letter, but I want to share it.
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