PFLAG at Wildman Harold Law Firm Affinity Group – by Wayne Adams

Wildman Harold Affinity Group Luncheon 2/25/10

On February 5^th PFLAG Chicago was honored to speak at the Law Firm of Harold Wildman. They conduct quarterly luncheons for their LGBT Affinity Group. In attendance were 40 law firm employees; Attorney’s, paralegals , secretaries and 4 representatives from PFLAG; Lisa and Don Jaburek, Estella Acevedo and Wayne Adams. The meeting was linked via teleconference to their California office as several additional employees of that office were interested as well.

The discussion included topics such as PFLAG’s role in the community, structure of meetings; open forum, round table discussion, monthly guest speaker, diversity of our membership, outreach and referral initiatives and general issues as they relate to friends and family of the LGBT community. We talked about the sharing of personal experiences, the understanding of the issues and concerns common to any individual upon 1st learning of an LGBT friend or family member, relaying personal observations, sharing of personal stories, etc. There was discussion of the monthly speaker forum which serves to inform and educate on LGBT related topics for all whom attend a PFLAG meeting.

The guest speakers, Lisa Jaburek and Estella Acevedo , mothers of gay and lesbian children had the opportunity to share their personal stories and experiences in relation to the journey they have traveled from 1^st learning that their child was gay . Their stories were compelling and generated a conversational dialog that generated numerous pertinent questions raised by audience members.

The well received talk lasted approximately 40 minutes. We were recognized by individual members of the audience and were able to gather 30 email addresses for upcoming communications.

Our host for the day, Sarah Olson asked if in the future we would be willing to speak at other Law Firms with affinity organizations that she has contact with. In the near future we are looking forward to taking our “show on the road” and speaking the PFLAG message.