OBIT: PFLAG Gay Rights Pioneer Adele Starr Has Died

Gay rights activist Adele Starr, 90, died on Friday at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. Starr is perhaps best-known for founding the Los Angeles chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). She later became PFLAG’s first national president.

Starr served at the helm of PFLAG during the onset of the AIDS crisis. Her longtime friend and fellow activist Terry DeCrescenzo remembered, "In that time, a lot of us lost hope [but] not Adele. PFLAG became enormously important because it was rock solid.... She was a good woman. She'll be missed."

Starr had five children and, when one of them sat her down to tell her that he was gay, she took it personally and then decided to help other families struggling like she had been originally. Thus, the impetus of PFLAG (at the time, the group was being referred to as Parent FLAG) and the beginning of something truly life-changing for families around the world.

Phillip Starr was the son who started it all by heroically coming out of the closet to his mom. He shared, "Initially the impulse was that the group was really important to her because she wanted parents not to suffer like she had — not to be isolated, to have a place to go." Starr has been partnered with Michael Simengal since 1974 and the couple has a 19-year-old son.

“Adele Starr was one of the pioneers of PFLAG. It is because of her commitment to organizing the many people who were working for the common goal of equality for all into the organization that we now know as PFLAG that we have gained the strength, prominence, and ability to become the voice of parents and allies united for equality,” said Jody M. Huckaby, PFLAG National’s Executive Director.

“May Adele’s family be comforted at this time of loss by the history she created and with the knowledge that the struggle for LGBT on a national scale began with her,” said Rabbi David M. Horowitz, current National President for PFLAG.

PFLAG is the nation’s foremost family-based organization committed to the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Founded in 1973 by mothers and fathers, PFLAG has 200,000 members and supporters in more than 300 chapters.

Starr is survived by her husband Larry and their five children. She also has six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.