Ties Like Me: Fostering LGBTQ+ Community Every Third Wednesday for 20 Years

How a simple networking idea became a lifeline for local queer professionals

FB IMG 1764362902267 — Attendees enjoy each other's company at a Ties Like Me event. Courtesy photo

Published: December 2, 2025 | Last Updated: December 10, 2025

When Reid Beyerlein and Robert Lalicki met at a Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce coffee meeting, they clicked instantly. So did the people seated on either side of them. Twenty years later, all four still show up to Ties Like Me, the LGBTQ+ networking organization the duo founded in October 2005.

It started with a simple realization: The Detroit area had plenty of networking opportunities, but none specifically for LGBTQ+ professionals.

"We just thought, wouldn't that be nice if there was something for the LGBTQ+ community," Lalicki told Pride Source. "Our whole goal was to connect and to refer and to do business with one another to help strengthen our own community first."

In an article Pride Source ran ahead of this first event in 2005, Beyerlein laid out the vision. "We found that one thing that the gay and lesbian community was lacking was a networking group strictly for gay and lesbian professionals," he said at the time. "The stronger we grow as a community, the better it's going to be for the community as a whole."

That first October meeting at Pronto! in Ferndale, hosted by local attorney Jim Rasor, the group’s first sponsor, drew 110 people. The second month brought 130. They'd clearly uncovered a need in the community.

But they'd also outgrown their venue. More importantly, they realized that always meeting at an LGBTQ+ bar was limiting their reach. Twenty years ago, many professionals still weren't out at work. While the group still meets at Pronto! over the course of each year, the venue rotates to spaces throughout the Metro Detroit area and doesn’t limit itself to venues geared toward the queer community.

"There were a couple of people who said, 'I want to join you guys, but I don't want to be seen going into a gay bar,'" Lalicki recalled. "Once we started moving things around, the audience changed. [We started] getting different demographics, people from different areas."

The strategy worked. By rotating venues throughout Metro Detroit, Ties Like Me began attracting people from Grand Blanc to Ann Arbor, from Jackson to Bloomfield Hills. Today, the group still draws close to 100 people monthly, always on the third Wednesday of the month. In two decades, they've changed that date exactly once.

1 Reid and Robert — Robert Lalicki and Reid Beyerlein at a Ties Like Me event. Courtesy photo

What started as strictly business networking evolved into something richer. Beyerlein and Lalicki watched as attendees fell in love, got married and came back to thank them.

"People say, 'Without Ties Like Me, I never would have met my partner,'" Beyerlein said, laughing. "It wasn't our intention, but Robert and I don't like to get in the way of what the universe is doing."

Dr. Joe Kort, a psychologist who directs The Center for Relationship and Sexual Health in Royal Oak and has been a member and sponsor throughout the organization's history, understands that evolution. "Ties Like Me has meant more to me than just a business networking group," he said. "I have made countless friends and acquaintances and have felt supported professionally and personally for the entire 20 years."

Joan Warner, a State Farm agent who helped organize the first planning meetings 20 years ago, has watched Ties Like Me become something far different from typical networking groups. Warner, who has attended since the beginning, appreciates that Beyerlein and Lalicki rejected the rigid, transactional model of other business networks. "We're not under huge pressure, like, 'Geez, I didn't bring three names for you to call next week.' We just go and we have a drink and it's a lot more casual." That approach has created space for genuine relationships. When a member recently lost his husband, the Ties Like Me community rallied around him. "When I say we're kind of like family, that's what I mean," Warner said.

The mission has evolved too. What Beyerlein described in 2005 as serving "gay and lesbian professionals" now welcomes the broader LGBTQ+ community — reflecting both broader cultural shifts and the organization's own growth.

"We have evolved," Lalicki said simply. "There have been folks from every part of the alphabet, if you will, who have come to Ties Like Me and have really found it worthwhile because they've met so many other people."

FB IMG 1764362909719 — Guests at a Ties Like Me gathering. Courtesy photo

At their 20th anniversary celebration in October, Lalicki was struck by the longevity of those connections. "It was wonderful to see people we haven't seen in such a long time, and many of them were there the very first one or two months that we started."

Both founders still greet attendees at the door — a practice they've maintained for 20 years. Beyerlein sees it as essential. "We want people to feel welcome so that good energy stays through the whole entire event," he said. "In today's environment, you see a smiling face at a door and sometimes that's all it takes."

Remarkably, both men still work full-time jobs and volunteer their time to Ties Like Me. They've never charged membership fees or dues.

"We do this because we think it's the right thing to do," Beyerlein said. "And that's the blessing of it — everybody comes and supports Ties because they believe it's the right thing to do, too."

When asked what keeps them going, Beyerlein's answer is simple: "Robert and I look back and we just say we are blessed. If it was just Robert and me every single month… I love Robert and we'd have a great dinner, but [the group] wouldn't be there. It's really just been the community of Detroit that has made it happen and made it stay happening for so long."

Ties Like Me meets on the third Wednesday of every month at rotating venues throughout Metro Detroit. Learn more at tieslikeme.org.