Edith Guffey Assumes the Helm as PFLAG National’s Board Chair

Edith Guffey, MSW, has worn many hats in her life and career: wife, mother, grandmother, activist, a leader in her church and Conference Minister of the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference for the United Church of Christ, providing support for sixty churches spanning over two states. Now, she takes on the role of Board Chair for PFLAG National, leading a 22-member board as the first Black woman to be selected for this distinguished position.

Guffey brings nearly thirty years of expertise in leadership, advocacy and organizational development to this role, along with a wealth of experience in such crucial areas as conflict mediation, fundraising, and facilitating much-needed conversations on race and white privilege. As a Midwestern woman of color who has been active in the faith community for most of her professional life, she is well aware of the challenges that face marginalized communities and also understands the unique intersectionality of LGBTQ+ and race concerns.

Lavender had the privilege of speaking with Guffey and talking to her about how her upbringing and her time spent working with the United Church of Christ prepared her to take on this new chapter of her life.

Guffey was born in Kansas City, Kan., but moved to Kansas City, Mo. at the age of four, where she soon embarked upon her school career in an all-white school when she started kindergarten. Cognizant of their daughter being the only Black child in the school, her parents instilled in her the message that, to the other children, parents and teachers, she was representing the entirety of the Black community and thus needed to both be on her best behavior and to excel academically on top of that. Quite the burden to place upon such small shoulders, but Guffey noted that it was not an unusual way of thinking at that time.

She also remarked that her parents’ high expectations for her stemmed largely from the fact that the highest level of schooling her mother achieved was a high school diploma while her father had only a third-grade education. Therefore, they instilled in her a drive to see education as a vital part of life and something to be pursued with zeal.

After navigating her way through elementary and high school during the era of integration, Guffey was accepted into a small Methodist-affiliated college, Baker University, in Baldwin, Kan. She commented that her matriculation there was an eye-opening experience for a young woman who had been raised to see a person’s skin color as being something that should not matter; a view that certainly ran against the general attitude of the 1950s in a predominately white university. It was at Baker that she got involved in a religious drama group that, as she says, “was challenging questions about the environment, about race, about niceness,” and that was extremely formative for her. Not only did she meet her husband in this group, but she also made lifelong friends that she is still close to even now.

It was during this time that Guffey said that she began to question some of the beliefs of the Baptist church that had been the bedrock of her life until that point. She began to wonder why there were certain almost unconscious biases against LGBTQ+ people in the denomination and began to feel uncomfortable with knowing that her “fundamental belief that everyone should be treated well and equally, and not be discriminated against because of who they were” was not shared by everyone in the church.

A visit to a nearby United Church of Christ while she was working at the University of Kansas opened her eyes to how things could be different when she saw a woman in the pulpit. And, in her words, she “was stunned” because “not only was it a woman, it was a Black woman.” She reveals that the United Church of Christ bucked social norms early on, ordaining a woman in the 1860s and its first openly gay man in 1977.

It was then that she felt like she had found her true church home, and was eventually elected secretary which necessitated a move to Cleveland where the national offices were located. Here she saw a veritable rainbow of people in regards to sexual orientation and skin color.

During that tenure, Guffey began to see how she could use her position as a mover and shaker within the church to also tackle the problem of many churches not always being willing to treat their neighbor as they themselves wished to be treated, which was especially prevalent in regards to their views toward the LGBTQ+ community.

As the mother of an adult transgender child, she understands the vital importance of supporting the families of the LGBTQ+ community, educating allies and advocating for equitable treatment for all.

She spoke of the time when her son was in college and they told her that their LGBTQ+ men’s fraternity was going to be hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for students who were not welcome in their homes because of their sexuality. She recalls being absolutely livid about this because, as she says, “Who turns their back on their kid? I mean, who does that?”

With retirement from the UCC looming on the horizon, Guffey recalled that a woman from Oklahoma who was on one of the committees requested to speak to her and that she asked if Guffey would be interested in being on the board of PFLAG. She says that she “knew that I wanted to be involved in something that was as important to me as the United Church of Christ again because I figured if I’m going to be involved in something, I want to be passionate about it.”

Guffey told Lavender that she feels that, initially, she was reluctant to tell fellow board members that she had worked in the faith community because she was “aware of the damage that many of the faith communities have done to the LGBT+ community” and that she understands the distrust that they often have of church and faith community members because of it. However, she also recounted that many in the community spoke of finding comfort in the United Church of Christ family because there was finally a denomination that welcomed, supported and accepted them for who they were. This, she says, is why she has found PFLAG to be “a good fit” and why she is “grateful for the opportunity to serve”.

As she takes the reins of PFLAG National, Guffey looks forward to the challenges ahead, and says that PFLAG will not only continue to offer support to LGBTQ+ families and their allies, but will also stand strong in the quest for advocacy for the community across the board in “creating a caring, just, and affirming world for LGBTQ+ people and those who love them.” She stresses the importance of increasing the diversity in PFLAG chapters around the nation in order to survive and thrive as an organization, as well as opening new chapters in both rural and urban areas. Guffey also encourages people to support PFLAG with monetary donations so that the nonprofit can continue to make a difference for LGBTQ+ people of all colors of the rainbow well into the future and beyond.

Arthur Diggins contributed reporting to this article.

SIDEBAR

Minnesota currently has four active PFLAG chapters:

PFLAG Marshall / Buffalo Ridge
102 Shoreview Dr.
Cottonwood, MN 56229
(507) 476-8335
[email protected]

PFLAG Mora Area
404 Cypress Street North
Cambridge, MN 55008
(320) 272-0069
[email protected]
www.ecmnpflag.org

PFLAG New Prague Area
New Prague, MN 56071
(507) 837-9218
[email protected]
www.pflagnewpraguemn.org

PFLAG Plainview / Wabasha County
Plainview, MN 55964
[email protected]

To find a chapter near you or to join a virtual community meeting, visit PFLAG.org/Get-Support.
To start a chapter in your community, fill out the interest form at PFLAG.org/Start-a-Chapter.