Our History

Gay For Good was founded in 2008 by three friends in Los Angeles, California on a trail below the Hollywood sign in the wake of the passage of Proposition 8 which abolished same sex marriage in California. Reeling from this loss, the founders were seeking a way to bridge the division in their own community, and drew on inspiration from the movie “MILK” chronicling the real-life story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California. Milk’s strategy of reaching out to his local neighborhoods through acts of support and kindness, enabled him to gain trust and respect within his district, and ultimately win office. This sparked the idea to bring people together through service which they felt could address several issues at once: inspire more LGBTQ+ involvement in local and global societal issues and activities, provide social welfare and environmental service organizations with much needed volunteer labor in support of their worthy endeavors, and serve as a vehicle to bring people of different backgrounds together for a shared purpose. They knew there was a large LGBTQ+ population that could be mobilized with proper leadership and communication to bring them together, so G4G was formed to establish local charters and train volunteer leaders to this end. In January of 2009, Gay For Good held its first official service project and the idea took off…

Founders

Tony Biel (he/him)

Co-Founder

Steve Gratwick (he/him)

Co-Founder

Frank Roller (he/him)

Co-Founder