Our 2022 Impact Report

Legislators across the country are banning teachers from educating students on LGBTQ+ issues, banning transgender youth from playing sports, criminalizing affirmative care to transgender youth, limiting parenting rights, removing healthcare protections, and reversing overall discrimination protections. Individuals are harassing librarians and pushing for hundreds of books to be banned in communities everywhere. Proud Boys were arrested after threatening a Pride event in Idaho and another white nationalist group, the Patriot Front, made an appearance at a protest in Boston this summer. In our home state, LGBTQ+ youth are at higher risk for almost every type of bullying, harassment, health risk, and economic instability. And the same people igniting hate in Colorado are also spurring hate against Boston Children's Hospital with bomb threats and protests.

It is easy to feel complacent and immune from hate in Massachusetts, because we’re not facing the same legal challenges as folks in other states are. But even here, LGBTQ+ young people continue to face isolation, discrimination, and violence. The latest Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey demonstrated that LGBT youth are at higher risk for almost every type of bullying, harassment, health risks, and economic instability. We must keep in mind that these statistics are products of the conditions in which our LGBTQ+ youth live. Decades of research shows, disparities in rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation among LGBTQ+ youth are nearly eliminated in communities with the most protective and inclusive families and schools.  We have the power for change.

Greater Boston PFLAG is working hard to ensure our support, education, and advocacy efforts don’t stop because of COVID-19, right wing intimidation, or community setbacks.  Click HERE to read our full 2022 Impact Report because while the world feels a little safer here in Massachusetts, Local Impact Matters, and we are doing this work together.