LGBT Oral History 003: Peggy Allan

Peggy Allan grew up in Oregon, where she attended Northwest Christian College for a year before marrying and having two sons with her first husband, Gary, a pastor. After 10 years of marriage, while the two were living together in Northern California, Gary came out as a gay man, and the two divorced. Peggy then married her second and current husband, Don, whom she has been with for 40 years and with whom she has another son. In this interview, Peggy discusses the initial struggles she and her sons faced in their relationship with Gary after his coming out, and then the later friendship that she and Don developed with Gary and his partner, Hal, and the family unit that they all came to form, including Peggy’s children. She describes how her lifelong friendship with Gary and Hal brought her to understand and become a great supporter of the LGBT community in Northern California, especially in trying to help foster open and affirming faith communities there, and how she and Don have continued to support the LGBT movement since their retirement and move to Lancaster in 2007.