About

The First Friday Breakfast Club (FFBC) was founded in Des Moines in 1996. What began as a few friends deciding to meet regularly for breakfast soon grew into Iowa’s largest breakfast club.

At 7 am on the first Friday of each month, we gather for breakfast and a speaker. We meet at Hoyt Sherman Place, 15th and Woodland, in Des Moines. We are an association of LGBTQ+ persons and their allies, welcoming members and guests regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Our monthly newsletter keeps members up to date. Membership lists are kept confidential.

Our speakers range from civic leaders to business professionals to national LGBTQ advocates. You-Tube sensation Zach Wahls gave us insight into growing up with two moms. Judy Shepard moved us as she discussed the heartache of losing her son Matthew to a hate crime. Our speakers will sometimes move you and almost always engage you. 

CLick here for past speakers' presentations

Thanks to your attendance and donations, we raise more than $40,000 annually for FFBC scholarships. We deeply appreciate your generosity. If you haven’t had a chance to give yet, we do accept contributions year-round. Thank you for making a difference. 

To date, FFBC has awarded Iowa students over $450,000 in scholarships. Post-secondary bound high school seniors who fight homophobia are encouraged to apply. 

Southern Poverty Law Center listed the First Friday Breakfast Club in its ’10 Ways to Fight Hate’ Community Response Guide as Iowa’s leading example of an advocate for tolerance and change in our communities. 

FFBC works to eliminate prejudice and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We seek to achieve this through discussion forums and media designed to educate ourselves, opinion leaders, and the general public.

In 1620, Sir John Melton wrote: ‘If a man walking in the fields find any four-leaved grass, he shall in a small while after find some good thing.’

LGBTQ people are like a four-leaf clover. We are perfectly natural and normal – not normative, mind you, but completely normal and authentic. A natural variant whether by nature or choice, it doesn’t really matter. If by nature, we have no choice. We should be protected as with other unchosen characteristics. If by choice, it’s no different than choosing to be Presbyterian or choosing not to be a fundamentalist bigot. That “choice” is supposed to be an exercise of constitutionally protected freedom.

We exist. Our minority status does not diminish our legitimacy, our authenticity, or our value. Each of us is like a four-leaf clover.