Harriet Hancock, 1982 South Carolina PFLAG Founder, Dies at 89
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Nov 5
Harriet Hancock, 1982 South Carolina PFLAG Founder, Dies at 89
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Nov 5
Summary
Harriet Hancock, an early force in South Carolina’s gay rights movement, died after decades of public advocacy that began when her 20-year-old son came out to her in 1981.
In 1982, she founded a South Carolina chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, now PFLAG, one of the state’s first LGBTQ rights groups and its oldest still operating.
Hancock said she “roared” to defend her son, Greg Hancock, at a time when she feared he could face ostracism or violence in their community.
Her activism emerged from personal upheaval as a widowed mother of three who had returned to college in her mid-40s, then turned private support into a public campaign for gay and lesbian rights.