Adele Starr dies at 90; unflagging gay-rights activist

Adele Starr, a Brentwood mother of five who overcame dismay at her son's homosexuality to become a leading voice for gay rights and marriage equality, has died. She was 90. Starr died in her sleep Friday at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, where she had been convalescing after surgery, said her son Philip Starr. In 1976, Starr founded the Los Angeles chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, a gay rights and acceptance organization known then as Parent FLAG, now as PFLAG. In 1979, she spoke on the steps of the U.S. Capitol at a march for gay rights–a seminal event often credited with uniting a then-nascent movement. Two years later, she became PFLAG's first national president; she served in that capacity until 1986 and remained a forceful advocate for civil rights and, in later years, for the legalization of same-sex marriage.