by Lynette Alice

Created on: March 19, 2009   Last Updated: March 26, 2010

Morty Manford was a witness to the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969 which was an event that changed his life forever. Morty saw a great need for LGBT persons to start standing up for their rights and became one of the leading activists in the gay community, not just locally, but nationally. The experience changed the life of his mother Jeanne as well. While Morty was standing up for equality and tolerance, he was beaten down during a peaceful demonstration by anti-gay activists. While several New York City policemen watched the beating take place, none moved to stop it. They let the beating continue until the attackers grew tired and left Morty on the ground. Jeanne and her husband Jules weren't there, but they did watch it replayed on television over and over and over,

Jeanne couldn't believe what had happened, much less that the police did nothing to stop the vicious attack on her son. She tried reaching out to the press, but most were uninterested. For television the moment had passed. The New York Times didn't wish to "Dirty their hands" with gay related stories and refused her calls. Finally one newspaper, the New York Post, was willing to break the ranks and run her letter to the editor which stated: "My son is a homosexual, and I love him." To the surprise of the editors at the Post and Jeanne as well the outpouring of support was overwhelming. With good comes the bad however and not all responses were positive, in fact some were so disgustingly hateful and threatening they had to be forwarded to the NYCPD who again did nothing.

During the 1972 Christopher Street Liberation Parade Jeanne marched carrying a sign which read "Parents of Gays: Unite in Support of our Children." By the end of the march she found others had joined her. A few were parents that did show up to support their children, but the overwhelming majority was young gay people that begged her to call or visit their parents and show them that it was okay to love their gay child just as any other.

It was that day while talking to many newly made friends that Jeanne realized there was no organization that really supported gays. Sure there were legal defense funds, some medical organizations that advocated for equal care and recognition on their behalf, most notably the APA, but not nothing that really supported them on the social level. She wasn't sure how to go about organizing such a thing, but she did speak to some of the parents of the gay youth she met that day on Christopher Street. Before

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