The Body
A website that is the complete HIV/AIDS resource. It includes articles about and links to HIV/AIDS hotlines and organizations.
CenterLink
With a directory listing 200 community centers, CenterLink is a resource you can use to find an LGBT community center.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The federal government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides a wide range of health information on its website. Here are some of the topics that may be relevant to you:
Equality Federation
Since 1997, the Equality Federation has worked throughout the U.S. to build leadership, strengthen state-based LGBT organizations, and make progress on critical LGBT issues.
Freedom to Marry
Launched in 2003, Freedom to Marry is the campaign to win the right to marry for same-sex couples nationwide.
Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network
Begun in 1990 as a small group of dedicated teachers in Massachusetts, GLSEN is now the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students.
GLAAD
Begun in 1985, GLAAD is the nation’s LGBT media-advocacy organization, promoting understanding, increasing acceptance, and advancing equality.
Human Rights Campaign
Founded in 1980, the Human Rights Campaign is the largest civil rights organization working for equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.
The It Gets Better Project
The It Gets Better Project started with a YouTube video created in September 2010 by author Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller. They posted the video to give hope to LGBT youth who are being bullied. That first video—with its message to young people that it does get better—has inspired more than 50,000 user-created videos that have been viewed more than 50 million times.
Lambda Legal
Founded in 1973, Lambda Legal is the oldest and largest national legal organization whose mission is to achieve full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, and those with HIV through impact litigation, education, and public policy work.
Married Gay
This is a website started in 1999 for men and women who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual and their opposite-sex spouses or partners.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)
NCLR has been advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, legislation, policy, and public education since it was founded in 1977.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Since the late 1970s, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has been working to build the grassroots power of the LGBT community to achieve equality. Its work includes training activists, supporting state and local organizations to organize legislative campaigns, and through its Policy Institute providing research and policy analysis to support equality.
National Resource Center on LGBT Aging
Established in 2010, the National Resource Center on LGBT Aging is the only technical assistance resource center in the U.S. intended to improve services and support to LGBT older adults.
The Next Family
This website is a diverse community where modern families meet—including urbanite families, adoptive families, in vitro parents, interracial families, same sex parents, and single parents.
Persad Center
Founded in 1972, Persad is a human service organization serving the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning) communities and the HIV/AIDS communities across western Pennsylvania. Although it is not a national or international service provider as the other organizations listed here are, I wanted to include Persad in this list because in Chapter 2 I wrote about it and its director Betty Hill.
PFLAG
Founded in 1972, PFLAG is the nation’s largest family and ally organization for LGBT people. PFLAG has over 350 chapters and 200,000 members and supporters, including parents, families, friends, and straight allies of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.
Prime Timers
A social organization that provides older gay and bisexual men the opportunity to enrich their lives, Prime Timers was started in 1987 and now has more than 80 chapters throughout North America, Europe, and Australia.
Queer Profits Podcast
This podcast is hosted by Diane Conklin, an internationally known author, entrepreneur, coach, consultant, speaker, copywriter, and implementation specialist. Diane is a direct response marketing expert who specializes in showing LGBT and other business owners how to integrate their online and offline marketing strategies, media and message, to get maximum results from their marketing dollars. In this episode, she interviews Michael Testa about When Opposites No Longer Attract, how life is different for queer people depending on where they live, and how there are many misconceptions out there about people in heterosexual marriages who come out as LGBTQ+.
https://queerprofitspodcast.com/episode-38-when-opposites-no-longer-attract-with-michael-testa/
SAGE
Founded in 1978 in New York City, SAGE (Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders) is the largest and oldest organization in the United States dedicated to improving the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender older adults. SAGE’s mission is to take the lead in addressing issues of aging in the LGBT community.
The Trevor Project
Founded in 1998, The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) young people.
TED Talks
I am including two TED Talks by Brené Brown as resources because I believe they can be of value to anyone who is coming out. The first is The Power of Vulnerability. The second is Listening to Shame. They were filmed in June 2010 and March 2012 respectively. Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work.
https://www.ted.com/talks/listening
TODAY Parents
TODAY Parents published an article discussing how different families reacted when one of the parents came out as LGBTQ+. A Gallup Poll from 2022 shows that US adults who identify as something other than heterosexual has doubled in the last ten years, and many of them started out in a heterosexual marriage and had kids before coming out.
https://www.today.com/parents/spouse-comes-out-as-gay
Straight Spouse Network
Is my husband gay? Is my wife a lesbian?
You’ve had suspicions. You’re pretty sure, or are positive, that it’s true. You may have caught your wife with another woman, or found gay-porn on your husband’s computer. There are countless red flags that literally millions of straight spouses see; lack of interest in having sex with you, suspicious phone calls, unexplained absences - it can be an endless list. It can blind side you.
My father was a gay man in a time where being out was not an option. He married and lived a sad life until he took his own life in 92. This book and these stories are so important especially to thoses who have been in these complex situations! Excellent read!
