Todd Forman originally joined the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, chapter of Gay for Good (G4G) because he was looking for something to do, other than going to the bars, to meet people.

He knew the group was a national LGBTQ+ and allied volunteer organization that partners with queer and non-queer service organization to promote queer diversity, foster inclusion, and strengthen ties to the broader community. The group’s camaraderie and friendliness — and the good feeling of giving back through service — kept him coming back to the group, and after a while, he became the group’s co-leader (a position he still holds today).

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Last March, Forman’s chapter conducted a service project with Made4Me, an organization that constructs furniture—like beds, chairs, and tables, as well as toys—for young kids with special needs. From 9 a.m. to noon on a Saturday morning, 15 G4G members helped put the finishing touches on the pieces: gluing parts together, applying grip tape, sanding down edges, and applying primer and paint.

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The local G4G chapter first worked with the group in 2022 but has now completed five projects with the organization, helping complete six to ten pieces per project. Made4Me was so appreciative of G4G’s involvement that they invited the participating volunteers to attend Made4Me’s first-ever Harvest 4 Hope fundraising gala this last April—about three G4G volunteers attended.

“I think the organizations that we work with enjoy our spirit, our way, the way our group members interact with each other and with the [recipient organizations],” Forman told LGBTQ Nation. “People who might have certain preconceived notions about the LGBT community when they just see [us] doing volunteer work…. it helps improve visibility… it brings understanding.”

Forman is one of thousands of volunteers with G4G’s 21 nationwide chapters. The original group was founded in California in response to the 2008 passage of Proposition 8, a voter ballot amendment that banned same-sex couples from getting legally married. The group’s three co-founders wanted to bridge divisions between the queer and non-queer communities, so they drew on inspiration from Harvey Milk, California’s first out gay elected official.

Milk’s kind acts of local community service helped him earn the trust and respect of straight and gay neighbors who eventually elected him into office. Following that same game plan, G4G’s three co-founders wanted to inspire some much-needed LGBTQ+ volunteer involvement in local social welfare organizations that could bring people of different backgrounds together for a shared purpose and to help shift public perceptions about the queer community.

As a result, G4G often pairs with local organizations that aren’t explicitly LGBTQ+-affiliated in order to help meet local needs while also showing the positive side of the local queer community. G4G tends to attract a lot of first-time volunteers, including straight allies, large queer-affiliated social groups, and young people who live out of town who want to partner with an LGBTQ+-inclusive volunteer organization. Its members build relationships with one another while also building lasting connections to the organizations they serve.

Christmas comes early to foster kids in Los Angeles, California

When the Teach 1 Reach 1 Foundation held its fifth annual Jingle, Jokes, and Jams holiday party and gift giveaway benefitting foster kids in Los Angeles County last December, the foundation’s founder, James Christian, enthusiastically accepted event assistance from the Long Beach and Orange County G4G chapter in California.

Christian mentioned the large number of LGBTQ+ kids in the foster care system to the chapter’s co-leader, Tiffany Ming. So Ming helped recruit multiple groups of 10 G4G volunteers to show up to work in shifts throughout the day-long event: unpacking boxes, decorating, and arranging the gift distribution area to look like a toy store. When the event kicked off in the evening, the G4G volunteers joined the kids in eating pizza, dancing to holiday music, and, of course, meeting Santa Claus.

“The most rewarding part was seeing the children’s faces when they walked into the room,” Ming told LGBTQ Nation. “It was a literal room filled with toys, all set up just for them. We had bikes, scooters, skateboards, Barbies, Legos, Hot Wheels, any toy you could imagine! And the best part? They got to take home whatever toy they wanted.”

She especially enjoyed serving as a personal shopper to the kids. “It can be overwhelming for kids to choose the right toy, so I took the time to connect with them one-on-one, chatting about their interests and helping them find the perfect toy,” she said.

Helping impoverished kids sleep peacefully in Phoenix, Arizona

Joshua Barelli — a hairdresser who lives in the conservative town of Scottsdale, Arizona — grew up in a conservative rural area and was thrown out of his family home when he came out as gay in the 1990s. He then realized that anyone could experience similar hardships, and this helped spark his interest in community service.

He originally wanted to set up his own LGBTQ+ volunteer organization, but he quickly discovered that starting a non-profit community service group can involve paperwork, establishing a board, creating bylaws, purchasing insurance, and other bureaucratic requirements.

So, instead, he just created a Phoenix, Arizona, G4G chapter in 2022 because it was less complicated. The chapter became an instant success, he said, with about 50 volunteers attending their first project event. The group has since grown with over 2,900 people on its mailing list. Many of the group’s project sign-ups quickly filled with volunteers, leaving members eagerly awaiting the next opportunity.

“For me personally, I want to be able to help as many people as possible,” he said, “and the best way for me to do that is to leverage my time in this organization…. It feeds your soul, it makes you feel good, it makes you forget your problems, and it’s just great.”

One of Barelli’s hairdressing clients learned about Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an organization that builds beds for kids in need. On the cold morning of the project, 50 G4G volunteers showed up at Sleep in Heavenly Peace’s warehouse workshop and found that they’d be working alongside another volunteer group from a local Baptist Church. A few military veterans showed up to help as well.

“It was two groups of people that would never normally interact,” Barelli said, adding that the two groups had no negative interactions during the event.

Together, the G4G group helped construct 130 wooden beds, assembling them with power tools and sanding and staining them too. The project occurred at a time when Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake was accusing gay people of being groomers.

Even though sex is a big part of queer people’s lives, Barelli said, “There’s so much more to your life, and there’s so much more substance to people than just what they do in their bedroom.”

“[Volunteering is] a great way to show that we do care about our community, we care about people,” he said. “Not only do we look out for each other, but we’re compassionate with other people. It’s good to show that … I’m also a son, I’m a friend, a neighbor, all of these other things that have nothing to do with your sexuality at all.”

“It’s good to show people that we’re not just like walking cliches,” he continued. “A lot of times it’s easy to hate what you don’t know, or fear what you don’t know.”

Moreover, Barelli realized that he had a lot of preconceived notions Baptists and veterans as well. He worried about possible conflicts with them, but he left realizing that, despite their differences, they can still accomplish positive things together.

“Hopefully, the next time the subject of homosexuality comes up, they’ll remember, ‘I just worked with 50 gay people that volunteered their Saturday morning at 7 a.m. to build beds for the thousands of kids that are sleeping on the floor, so how bad can they be?'”

Providing food & humanity with the L.A. Islamic Center

While coming out as a gay man, Andrew Stum, was taught that the Muslim community was very homophobic. But then he began serving as chapter leader of G4G Los Angeles, California, and the chapter began partnering with the L.A. Islamic Center in Koreatown.

About once every two months, G4G volunteers will hand out about 400 food baskets filled with pre-packaged meats, dairy goods, fruits and vegetables, and dry and canned goods.

He doesn’t put up his chapter’s pink G4G flag in the center out of respect for religious sensitivities, but the center’s workers have been very “open and accepting” of G4G’s help, he said. They cheer when G4G volunteers show up on Saturday mornings, and they’ve welcomed the volunteers back again and again.

“They love us to partner with them. We help them tremendously,” he said. “We’re specifically seeing the good that we do by partnering with people and just exposing ourselves one person at a time.”

“I think it’s invaluable, because as the racism and homophobia is apparently getting easier for people to show, especially with this new administration, we can show that we are just regular people doing good in the world,” Stum added.

Stum has helped organize all kinds of non-LGBTQ+ community projects with G4G, from partnering with a Baptist church to help impoverished kids and walking dogs at a local animal shelter to cleaning up local hiking trails and elementary school campuses. The group also partners with LGBTQ+ organizations, including assisting with drag fundraising events and, more recently, helping with Q CON, West Hollywood’s fourth annual LGBTQ+ comics convention.

Once, when partnering with a local church, the minister told the G4G volunteers to remove their name tags that said “Gay for Good” on them because he didn’t want them to “recruit.” The request surprised Stum because G4G had partnered with the church several times in the past, but Stum firmly refused, saying his group wasn’t recruiting, and then stopped volunteering for the church until a church member called and informed him that the minister had left.

“A lot of queer people who’ve grown up in the church don’t go to church anymore,” Stum said. “When there’s an event at a church or at a mosque or somewhere where their roots or their family’s religion is still strong in them, they are able to do an event at a church and still volunteer and be a part of a queer group…. It pulls things together that they don’t have the ability to pull together otherwise.”

“I feel like we can get together as LGBT people, and not at a bar or somewhere where people don’t necessarily feel like they may fit in, but we can go and volunteer together, have lunch together afterwards, we can be that kind of open space and safe space for people to come be themselves and and also volunteer and do good,” he said.

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