Welcome to the First Friday Breakfast Club!

The First Friday Breakfast Club (FFBC) is an educational group for gay, bisexual and transgender men. We gather monthly in Des Moines for breakfast, fellowship and a speaker. We provide a safe and supportive environment for all members and guests.

As Iowa’s largest breakfast club, we are active, dynamic and engaging. We educate ourselves on LGBTQ issues. We work to reduce prejudice and discrimination. Throughout the year, we raise scholarship funds for students who fight homophobia. We offer guidance to those who need help in the coming out process. And we provide opinion leaders and the community with positive images of LGBTQ people.

Please visit our website www.ffbciowa.org where we have our upcoming speakers and archive of prior speaker recordings as well as newsletters.  
 
You now have the ability to make one-time or recurring donations to support the scholarship program!

Click HERE to donate to the scholarship fund.  

The June 2021 newsletter is now available HERE.

Upcoming Speakers

July 2, 2021, will be our scholarship awards presentation.  The speaker will be Kevin Newbury a theatre, opera and film director based in New York City. Kevin’s work focuses on issues of community, empathy and social justice, with a particular focus on our shared LGBTQAI+ history and education. After extensive research into The Lavender Scare and this neglected period in American history, he developed a new opera, FELLOW TRAVELERS based on that learning and around Thomas Mallon’s book of the same name.The opera version, also titled FELLOW TRAVELERS premiered at Cincinnati Opera and has seen subsequent productions atPrototype Festival/NYC, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Arizona Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera on July 17, 2021.  Tickets for FELLOW TRAVELERS go on sale June 1, 2021.
 
August 6, 2021:  Ian Lawrence-Tourinho, Director of The Bi Foundation and founder of the amBi network, a growing, international collaborative of socially-focused bi communities.
 

Special Notice:  Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the FFBC is currently conducting its monthly meetings via Zoom.  If you are not already receiving the monthly notices for the meeting via SignUp Genius, you may send a request to [email protected] to be added to the monthly meeting RSVP notice.

FFBC members breakfast and a speaker during our monthly gatherings. Breakfast begins promptly at 7:00 am. Unless otherwise noted, all meetings are at the Hoyt Sherman Place.

Hoyt Sherman Place (website) 
1501 Woodland Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50309

To view past speakers (and listen to remarks from select speakers), click here or on the PAST SPEAKERS link at the top of the page.

Speaker Recommendations:  If you have a recommendation for a speaker for a future First Friday Breakfast Club meeting please email to [email protected], providing information about the potential speaker, and contact information for them.  Your contact information would be appreciated as well. 

Items of interest

Graying Rainbows Podcast Interview of FFBC’s David Cotton

Retired Air Force Brig. General David Cotton shares his story of coming out LGBT+ after leaving his military career. He struggled with depression and with ending his marriage, but he shares how he learned how to embrace vulnerability and discovered new ways to connect with others.  CLICK HERE for interview.

The Trevor Project National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health 2021

The past year has been incredibly difficult for so many, but we also know that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) youth have faced unique challenges. The Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health sheds light on many of these challenges by capturing the experiences of nearly 35,000 LGBTQ youth ages 13–24 across the United States.

Fellow Travelers

Tickets now on sale for the July 17, 2021, performance of the opera, Fellow Travelers.  From the Des Metro Opera webpage, “Set in 1950s Washington, D.C. amidst the oft-overlooked “Lavender Scare,” a US government employment purge that resulted in thousands of firings and resignations of men and women believed to be members of the LGBTQ+ community, Fellow Travelers tells the story of a forbidden love between Timothy Laughlin, a recent college graduate, and Hawkins Fuller, an official at the State Department. As Tim struggles to reconcile his faith, his political beliefs, and his new-found passion, Hawkins takes an increasingly cavalier attitude towards their relationship, ultimately ending in betrayal and heartbreak.”  More information at:  https://desmoinesmetroopera.org/productions/fellowtravelers/ 

PRIDE on FX & Hulu

Pride on FX & Hulu starting May 14, 2021.  From Emmy® Award-winning Killer Films (This American Life, Mildred Pierce) and Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize winning VICE Studios (Flee, The Report) comes PRIDE, a six-part documentary series chronicling the struggle for LGBTQ+ civil rights in America from the 1950s through the 2000s.  See more at this link.

A New Era Begins: Byron Huff Becomes New FFBC President

If you missed the February 5th, 2021, FFBC virtual breakfast meeting with Brian Bond, Executive Director of PFLAG, then you may not be aware that Jonathan Wilson has retired and become former board member emeritus and that I was appointed president. Jonathan formed FFBC in 1996 and deserves recognition for his work and dedication that leaves us with a well-run organization and its mission that continues to be important to Iowa. I have served on the FFBC board since 2004 and as Vice President for the past six years. Ryan Crane will be our new Vice President. I am truly honored that Jonathan believes in my ability to lead the organization he founded.             

I grew up on a farm outside of Winterset, Iowa, where my parents continue to live today. I graduated from AIB, Simpson College, The Graduate School of Banking Madison, and Lake Forest Graduate School in Chicago. I met my husband, Jim, in 1995 at the Blazing Saddle where we made plans for our first date on Memorial Day weekend. Career opportunities took us to New Orleans in 1997 for a short time, then on to Chicago where we spent five years. I accepted a job with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines in March 2003, bringing us back to Iowa. Iowa had changed so much for the better since 1997 as gay people seemed more welcome and Des Moines had prospered. Jim and I were married here in 2010.             

Jim, Presha (our six-year-old Morkie), and I lived in the Druid Hill neighborhood from 2003 until 2019 when we moved to a loft downtown as part of our desire to simplify and downsize. We enjoy many of the amenities downtown living offers as we love to join friends for drinks and dinner. We enjoy biking (Presha rides along) around the city and attending the downtown farmer’s market and the other festivals throughout the summer. We recently purchased a motorhome and are looking forward to new adventures with it.             

FFBC is a wonderful organization with a hard-working board and an amazing membership that I am proud to be a part of and now lead into the future. There is still so much work to be done even as we had made huge progress during the Obama years, only to see some of it taken away and even threatened during the last four years. Biden brings us new hope that could bring the Equality Act as rule of law, but even with these strides, we find there are always pockets of resistance that make our mission continue to be relevant and so important. With your help, we will continue to award scholarships to students whose stories bring tears to my eyes as their courage shines above adversity.    

Sincerely,

Byron Huff
FFBC President