American activist and educator Jeanne Manford was BOTD in 1920. Born Jean Sobelson in Flushing, New York, she studied briefly in Alabama, returning to New York after her father’s death. She married Jules Manford, with whom she had three children, attending Queens College in her 30s to complete her degree and becoming a primary school teacher. In 1966, her eldest son Charles committed suicide, after years of depression over his homosexuality. When her younger son Morty came out as gay a few years later, Manford supported him, later writing “I am not going to lose another son because this society is so prejudiced against gay people. I want my son to thrive.” In 1972, Morty was attacked after circulating gay rights pamphlets at a fundraising dinner, prompting Manford to write a letter of protest to the New York Post, and undertaking a series of press interviews to condemn police inaction over Morty’s attack. Later that year, she and Morty attended the New York City Pride March a few months later with a sign reading, “Parents of Gays Unite in Support for Our Children.” Inspired by the positive reception to her appearance, she and her husband formed the support group Parents of Gays, intended to provide “a bridge between the gay community and the heterosexual community”. Renamed as Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (P-FLAG) in 1981, it became one of the most vocal gay rights organisations in the United States, advocating for anti-discrimination laws, HIV/AIDS education and research, a repeal of the US military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, and legal recognition of same-sex relationships. Manford remained a central figure in P-FLAG, surviving Charles who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1992, before retiring to California in 1996, dying in 2013, aged 92. A month after her death, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal for her commitment to gay rights. P-FLAG now has 360 chapters across the United States and affiliate organisations in other countries, extending its remit in 1998 to advocate for the rights of transgender people, and