Elise and Jim Self know that gays and lesbians deserve the same rights as everyone else, because they have a lesbian daughter who they can't imagine loving less than their straight son. These founders of the Grant's Pass PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) came out as a family when their daughter was 20, a brave thing to do in a small, rural community.

"When she told us, we realized in that moment that she was going to be treated differently. She's not going to have equal rights," they remember thinking, and that was an image they found abhorrent. From that moment, they decided to do something about the painful reality their daughter would have to live in. They began to share in that reality, as well; as a star athlete, the Selfs' daughter was well known, and her coming out was literally front-page news in the local paper. Friends and co-workers began to treat the family differently, even after their daughter left for college.

"Everyone needs to remember," they explain, "that all of these people we're talking about, every single person you might discriminate against, is somebody's child." The Selfs look to writers from Robert Ingersoll ("A civilized society is one in which every person gives to every other person what he or she would want for himself") to Abraham Lincoln ("It does not matter whether you lose one battle for civil rights, or you lose 100. You do not give up. You simply keep on fighting") for inspiration. They may have moved from Grant's Pass to Eugene, but they are still fighting for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender equality every day.