Gay For Good Denver Combines Socialization and Service

On November 4, 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, an amendment to the state’s constitution that banned same-gender marriage. But friends Tony Biel, Steve Gratwick, and Frank Roller didn’t take the profound loss sitting down—They used it as inspiration to create an organization dedicated to fostering LGBTQ+ community, connection, and service that would soon spread nationwide.

Their passion project, coined Gay For Good (G4G), now has 20 different chapters that span from the organization’s state of origin—California—all the way to Boston. G4G organizes and mobilizes volunteers who are members of the LGBTQ+ community or allies and plans service projects and events that give back to the local community.

Ben Gunderson, a Denver G4G chapter leader, discovered the organization while he was living in Washington D.C.; he would volunteer with G4G for park cleanups during the peak of the pandemic. “Then I moved to Denver to come to grad school and be closer to family, and as the prospect of school ending was wrapping up, I was like, ‘What does life look like after this?'” Gunderson says. “And then I thought ‘Hey, I should get volunteering.'”

He looked for a local G4G chapter but didn’t find one—The closest chapter was the Rocky Mountain branch over on the Western slope, about three hours away. So in 2022, he reached out to Anne Friedman, the organization’s national director, and began the process of building a new chapter from the ground up.

Gunderson’s first general interest call attracted Brent Walker, who dove headfirst into a chapter leadership position. “I had moved to Denver a couple of years prior, and I was involved in an organization like this back in Tampa called Balance Tampa Bay,” Walker says. “And after COVID, things were starting to open up… and I began to look for a queer volunteer group, and I didn’t know of any, so I thought about starting my own. And then within a couple of weeks, something popped up on Facebook that something was starting here called Gay For Good.”

Neill Kovash, the third current Denver G4G chapter leader, moved to Denver around the same time as Gunderson and Walker. Kovash had also volunteered with G4G before and jumped at the chance to continue serving his community.

“As an organization, our client really is the queer community,” Gunderson says. “It’s really about getting us together in spaces that aren’t necessarily centered on alcohol or other typical spaces where we gather. And we organize queer volunteers and our allies to show up in the community… to promote diversity, foster inclusion, and strengthen ties to the broader community.”

“We also try to show up in spaces that are for the general population, also with the assumption that a portion of the people served by those nonprofits are also queer,” he adds. “So we are reaching that community while also building bridges to people of other sexual identities.”

The Denver chapter regularly volunteers for organizations like Project Angel Heart, Colorado Pet Project, CAFE 180, St. Francis Center, Denver Urban Gardens, and Denver Parks and Rec, just to name a few. Gunderson estimates that in the year and a half since the creation of the Denver chapter, they’ve completed around 80 service projects. Each project requires a different number of volunteers, and whoever is interested in helping can sign up on the G4G website. Right now signup is on a first-come, first-served basis, but the chapter leaders plan to start saving a percentage of the volunteer slots for first-timers.

“I think for people, signing up with an organization and going through whatever their orientation process is and getting involved, it’s just too high of a hurdle,” Kovash says, reflecting on why the G4G volunteer structure works. “And so what we do is we remove that hurdle. There’s no commitment… It’s very low-stakes like Ben was saying, so it (gives) people the opportunity to say, ‘Oh hey, I can just show up.’ For some reason removing that barrier makes a huge difference.”

The Denver G4G chapter leaders emphasize that one of the most important parts of the organization is the opportunity for healthy socialization. Projects are a way for volunteers to meet new people in a structured, productive space—something that’s especially impactful for those who don’t like to frequent typical dedicated queer spaces like bars and clubs.

“We’ve seen friendships grow. I have some very good friends, actually, two of them are right here, that have come from this organization,” Walker says, gesturing to Kovash and Gunderson. “We’ve certainly been able to grow our relationship over the year, and then there are people that I just love spending time with that come to a lot of events. I now have a great concert buddy that I go to a lot of concerts with. He’s one of our regulars, and it’s been a very nice way to get to know people in a very positive way.”

For Gunderson, having a predetermined activity and moving towards a designated goal takes away some of the usual social pressures. “I come across as charismatic and outgoing, but I can be quite awkward in a bar or club space,” he reveals. “So just speaking for myself, it’s really helpful for me to have a task that is not self-interested and that I can do in community with folks. It sort of lubricates being able to meet without the awkwardness. You don’t have to directly face each other. You don’t even have to make eye contact, so it really attracts different kinds of people who socialize in different ways.”

Besides the everlasting recruitment of volunteers, Gunderson, Kovash, and Walker are hoping to add some members to the leadership team that better reflect the diversity of the G4G community. “We’re very cognizant that we are now a group of cis white guys, and if Brent shaves his head we would be cis, white, bald guys,” Kovash jokes. “We’re trying to communicate to the Denver population that if you’re interested in joining us and bringing your experience, (we are) 100% looking for that.”

Photo courtesy of Gay For Good